The Moscow Basmanny Court in absentia sentenced Zhanna Bulakh (Bullock), the former wife of ex-finance minister of the Moscow region Alexei Kuznetsov, to 11 years in prison. The TFR accuses them of multi-billion plunders from the budget of the Moscow region. Ms. Bulakh lives in the US - she has the citizenship of this country, and Mr. Kuznetsov is hiding in France, which so far has refused to extradite him.

Zhanna Bulakh on Tuesday was recognized by Basmanny Court as guilty of committing fraud and legalization of money and other property acquired by a person as a result of the commission of a crime (Part 4, Article 159 and Part 3, Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code). The criminal case against her was allocated to a separate proceeding from the "big" case of embezzlement of budget funds in the Moscow region. "The competent authorities of the United States have received an answer that Bulakh is in the territory of this state and can not be extradited due to the lack of an extradition treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation," noted in the TFR.

"The investigation and the court found that Bulah, as part of an organized group led by former First Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Region Government - Finance Minister of the Moscow Region Government Aleksey Kuznetsov and his first deputy Valery Nosov, was involved in the acquisition of fraud and abuse of confidence in municipal unitary enterprises in the Moscow region, providing services in the sphere of housing and communal services, the right to another's property in the form of the right to claim debts for these services to municipal authorities Moscow region, as well as money laundering, "- said the official representative of the SCR Svetlana Petrenko.

In addition, as previously told Kommersant, the cybercriminals committed the theft of funds as a result of the purchase and sale transaction of Mosvettrustinvest's ordinary registered uncertificated shares of the Rosweb company and the funds held by the Moscow Region Mortgage Corporation from the sale of the third series of bonds of OJSC "Moscow Regional Mortgage Agency".

The amount of damage caused as a result of the illegal actions of the accused is 11.8 billion rubles.

"The role of Bulah in the commission of crimes was to organize and develop a plan for fraud, coordination of actions of the participants of an organized group, control over the movement of funds held in the accounts of limited liability companies controlled by participants in an organized group," the Committee reported.

As for the legalization of money, according to the investigation, it was carried out through the conclusion of fictitious transactions involving various legal entities controlled by the members of an organized group, including Bula, whose settlement accounts were opened in the bank of the MLB; it was also controlled by Kuznetsov and Nosov and Bulach. By concluding these fictitious transactions, the stolen funds were withdrawn to settlement accounts of non-resident companies registered in Cyprus.

The stolen money was purchased by elite real estate in Switzerland and France, two hotels in France, ten expensive cars, a motor yacht registered in the Cayman Islands, and other property.

Moreover, in Russia, Mrs. Bulach's attempt to export 1,357 rare items, including books, paintings, a mat with icons and newspaper extracts, coins, armor, etc., was stopped in Finland. This property was seized, part of it was sold to satisfy civil claims.

Earlier, Valery Nosov and several other defendants were convicted. "At present, the procedure of extradition of accused Alexei Kuznetsov from France to Russia is continuing," they summed up in the TFR.