ST. PETERSBURG, December 23 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The former rector of the St. Petersburg Agrarian University Victor Yefimov on Monday was found guilty of embezzling of 28.6 million rubles (over $450,000) and sentenced to 5 years in a penal colony, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts told RAPSI.

Additionally, the Pushkinsky District Court of St. Petersburg fined the defendant 500,000 rubles ($8,000). Moreover, the court granted a 28.6-million-ruble civil claim filed by the university as a victim in the case against Yefimov.

However, the defendant pleaded not guilty.

According to case filings, acting as a university rector Yefimov in 2011 ordered his subordinate to sign a 36-million-ruble (about $600,000) research work contract with the Northwest development and attracting investment agency to improve the quality of training of agrarian specialists. Investigators claimed that the defendant knew for a fact that the terms of the contract would not be performed. The autonomous nonprofit organization transferred the full sum of money; Yefimov allegedly fingered 28.6 million rubles.

As reported earlier, in the spring of 2018, one of the defendants, CEO of the Northwest development and attracting investment agency, Slava Khodko was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Yefimov initially was a witness in the case.