ST. PETERSBURG, December 30 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The defendants in a case over incentive rewards paid to functionaries responsible for building works in St. Petersburg by subway construction contractors had been passed suspended sentences, RAPSI learnt in the courtroom on Monday.

The prosecutors believe the payments to staffers of the Transport Infrastructure Development Committee (TIDC) and its Transport Construction Directorate (TCD) were made at the expense of budgetary direct investments in construction; accordingly, the premiums were to be deemed a misuse of public funds and the payment thereof were to be qualified as fraud resulting in embezzlement of 7 million rubles (about $115,000 at the present exchange rate).

The case was tried by the Kuibyshevsky District Court of St. Petersburg.

Four defendants in the case were given suspended sentences, two of them were released from penalty under amnesty.