MOSCOW, April 24 (RAPSI) – Ex-CEO of Russia’s major shipping company Sovcomflot (SCF) Dmitry Skarga has been sentenced to 12 years in prison in absentia for embezzling over 8 billion rubles ($130 million), the Russian Investigative Committee’s press service reports Tuesday.

His accomplices, ex-president of Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship) Tagir Izmaylov and gang organizer Yury Nikitin, received 11 and 15 years in prison respectively. Additionally, a court ordered forfeiture of the defendants’ assets, the statement reads.

Depending on their role in the crime the defendants were found guilty of organization a criminal group and participation in it, abuse of authority, embezzlement and money laundering.

According to the Investigative Committee, from 2001 to 2005, Skarga, Izmaylov and other members of a gang organized by Nikitin embezzled more that 8 billion rubles belonging to Sovcomflot subsidiaries, Novoship and its subsidiaries, by a series of unlawful and uncommercial shipping and banking transactions. However, they laundered 5.5 billion rubles (about $90 million).

Russian investigators repeatedly sent requests to the United Kingdom for the defendants’ extradition but were denied.

SCF is Russia's largest shipping company fully-owned by the state. Its fleet consists of about 150 ships.