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Key suspect in major Russian military fraud case found guilty

Earlier, the prosecutor asked the court to hand down an eight-year suspended sentence to Vasilyeva and to sustain $16 million lawsuits

Yevgenia Vasilieva Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

Yevgenia Vasilieva

© Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

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Suspect in embezzlement at Defense Ministry remains under house arrest

MOSCOW, May 6. /TASS/. A Moscow court has found Russia's ex-Defence Ministry official Yevgenia Vasilyeva guilty of embezzling 3 billion rubles ($60 million) as part of a high-profile case involving the ministry-affiliated company Oboronservis, a TASS corresponded reported from the courtroom on Wednesday.

Earlier, the prosecutor asked the court to hand down an eight-year suspended sentence to Vasilyeva and to sustain 800-million-ruble lawsuits ($16 million). According to the prosecution, the real estate and valuables confiscated from Vasilyeva will be enough to repay this debt to the state.

The prosecutor also demands that the court should give suspended sentences of between four and six years to another four suspects in the Oboronservis case. Vasilyeva’s lawyer Hasan Borokov joked that all the suspects were in a "combative mood."

The sentence for the defendants and their role in committing the crimes will be known from the final part of the verdict and its pronouncement could take two or three days.

Vasilyeva, a former property relations department head of the Defence Ministry, is accused of 12 episodes of crime, including a large-scale fraud, abuse of power and money laundering. According to investigators, Vasilyeva sold the key real estate items, shares and other assets of Oboronservis, a state-run defence ministry holding company, on underestimated price.

Since late November 2012, Vasilyeva has been under house arrest.

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