MOSCOW, June 30 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Tuesday mitigated prison sentence given to the former Finance Minister of the Moscow Region Alexey Kuznetsov in the 14 billion-ruble (about $200 million) embezzlement case from 14 years in penal colony to 13 years and 8 months, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

The court excluded a qualifying element of ‘the use of job position’  from conviction on the money laundering charges.

In December 2019, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court convicted Kuznetsov of embezzlement, money laundering and sentenced him to 14 years behind bars. Moreover, the court ordered that over 14 billion rubles be recovered from the defendant upon civil claims filed by victims in the case.

According to investigators, from 2005 to 2008, a group organized by Kuznetsov unlawfully obtained the right to recover debts of enterprises operating in the housing and utilities sector of the Moscow Region and embezzled funds of the Moscow Regional Investment Trust Company.

Other defendants in the case have been already convicted and sentenced. Ex-deputy finance minister of the Moscow Region Valery Nosov has received 14 years and 9 months behind bars. Ex-CEO of the Moscow regional government's Moscow Regional Trust Company Vyacheslav Telepnyov has been given 10 years in prison.

Kuznetsov, who fled abroad in 2010, was extradited from France to Russia in January 2019.