MOSCOW, June 26 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) - Former Mezhprombank executive Alexander Didenko, who had been sentenced to 3 years for embezzlement of over 28 billion rubles ($475 million) from the bank, was released from prison, Didenko wrote on his Facebook page.

In July 2015, Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court found Didenko guilty of embezzlement and passed a 3-year suspended sentence on him. In September 2015, the Moscow City Court granted an appeal filed by prosecution and changed his suspended sentence to real jail term. Additionally, Didenko was fined 1 million rubles ($17,000 at the current exchange rate).

Didenko signed a plea bargain and testified against ex-senator and former president of Mezhprombank Sergey Pugachev.

According to investigation, Didenko and former deputy head of the Federal Tourism Agency (Rosturizm) Dmitry Amunts were members of a criminal group that embezzled the funds from Mezhprombank in 2008-2009.

In April 2017, Amunts was sentenced to 7 years in prison in this case. In addition to the prison term, the former official was deprived of the right to perform financial and operational activities in the banking sector for 3 years. The court also granted a lawsuit of victims demanding 28.5 billion rubles from the defendant. Amunts has filed an appeal against the ruling.

The bank’s operating license was revoked in October 2010 by the Central Bank over failure to comply with the regulator’s requirements or to satisfy creditors’ claims. In November Mezhprombank was declared bankrupt. At that time, the bank owed 31.8 billion rubles to the Central Bank while the creditors’ claims totaled 85 billion rubles ($1.4 billion).

Pugachev was arrested in absentia by a Moscow court and put on the international wanted list in December 2013.