Moscow sentences "Putin's banker" to 14 years in absentia
A Moscow court has sentenced Sergei Pugachev, a former banker linked to the Kremlin and owner of Mezhprombank, in absentia for embezzlement. The sentence is 14 years in a high-security penal colony. Pugachev is protected from extradition by his French citizenship.
Sergei Pugachev, once an influential senator and founder of Mezhprombank, was sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court on Tuesday, May 13, to 14 years in a penal colony.
The verdict involves allegations of embezzlement and misappropriation of funds over a decade after his bank's collapse and his escape from Russia, reports the "Moscow Times." He was found guilty of misappropriating 28.7 billion rubles (approximately 500 million CAD).
Founded in 1992, Mezhprombank was one of the largest banks in Russia, but in 2010 a court declared it bankrupt. The main reason for this was found to be the issuing of unsecured loans.
Life in exile
Pugachev has been a citizen of France since 2009. He left Russia after a conflict with members of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle following the 2008 financial crisis. Since then, he has accused the Kremlin of seizing his assets without compensation and destroying his multi-billion-dollar business empire.
Why is Pugachev called "Putin's banker"? After Boris Yeltsin's resignation, he helped finance the election campaign of the former KGB agent. He was also one of the leaders of Putin's campaign team, as gazeta.pl reminds us.
