MOSCOW, April 17 - RAPSI. A Moscow court sentenced a former head of the Moscow State Institute of State and Corporate Management to 5.5 years in prison. Andrei Zvyagin embezzled circa $2.5 million together with his accomplices, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office reported on Tuesday.

The court found that former university president Andrei Zvyagin stole money from the institute in partnership with the institute's chief accountant and the vice president of a Moscow bank.

For these ends, the bank director provided the accountant the details and stamps of fictitious companies from September 2004 to September 2007.

Zvyagin then signed fake contracts with the firms drawn up by the accountant. The university funds were paid to the firms' bank accounts, from where the bank director proceeded to transfer the money to the personal accounts belonging to Zvyagin and the accountant.

Both Zvyagin and the accountant were found guilty of major embezzlement and were sentenced to 5.5 and 4 years in prison respectively. The bank director was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for assisting the crime.