MOSCOW, December 12 (RAPSI) – The 235 Garrison Military Court has sentenced ex-first deputy chief of the Russian State Geological Company (Rosgeo) Ruslan Gorring to 3.5 years in penal colony for large-scale fraud, according to a RAPSI reporter.

The court has taken into account such mitigating circumstances as guilty plea, sincere repentance, maintenance of kids and partial reparation of damages to a victim.

A prosecutor on Wednesday asked the court to pass a 3.5-year prison sentence and a 400,000-ruble fine upon Gorring. The defendant and his defense petitioned for a suspended sentence.

The case was considered under a special procedure envisaging hearing without examining evidence as the defendant had pleaded guilty.

According to investigators, from June 2009 to September 2010, Ruslan Ganizhev (Gorring), being an authorized representative of lawmaker Alexander Gazeykin, received over 19 million rubles ($300,000) from a businessman for the unhindered carrying out commercial activity in the Moscow Region’s Leninsky District. The money was transferred to the accounts of sham companies. Later, the defendant during personal meetings demanded over 5 million rubles more from the entrepreneur.

On February 15, 2011, he was arrested when receiving the bribe. During interrogation, he made a confession.

However, later the accused fled from investigators and changed his surname. Gorring was arrested again on March 7, 2019, at Vnukovo airport near Moscow.