ST. PETERSBURG, August 11 (RAPSI) — Roman Koval, a former lawmaker of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, was sentenced to 9 years in prison for large-scale corruption, the Joint press service of St. Petersburg courts told RAPSI.

Besides, Koval was ordered to pay 35 million rubles (about $580,000) in fines. He was barred as well from holding public office for 8 years.

Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Koval to 14 years behind bars and a fine of 88 million rubles (about $1.5 million at the current exchange rate), as well to prohibit him from holding public office for 7 years.

Although pleading guilty in part in the course of investigation, Koval denied guilt when in the courtroom.

In July 2020, Koval was detained on bribery allegations. According to investigators, between 2018 and 2020 he repeatedly took bribes personally and through his assistant. He allegedly used his official position in submitting and adopting lawmakers’ amendments to the city budget. The funds were allocated as subsidies for state healthcare institutions for the purchase of equipment and materials from the firms of a bribe giver.

According to the case papers, in 2019 he received three bribes totaling nearly 8.7 million rubles. In 2018, investigators claim, he took a new Audi Q7 car as a bribe; in 2020, he received money and property worth over 16.9 million rubles.