And recover $334 million: court in Tatarstan sentences oligarch Kolomoisky in absentia to 12 years in prison*
Almetyevsk city court finds oil theft of 10.8 billion rubles as part of an organized criminal group proven — defendants did not participate in the proceedings
Today in Tatarstan, an unprecedented trial in the case of embezzlement of nearly 11 billion rubles reached its conclusion. Four well-known Ukrainian businessmen were found guilty in absentia of appropriating 859 thousand tons of Tatneft products as part of a criminal organization and sentenced to 48 years in a strict regime penal colony, with each receiving 12 years. Among the defendants was Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky*. At the same time, the convicted parties were jointly ordered to compensate damages in the amount of $334 million, with the amount to be determined in ruble equivalent on the date of repayment, Realnoe Vremya was told by the press service of the Almetyevsk city court of Tatarstan.
All four defendants were also placed under arrest in absentia and are currently on the international wanted list. Today, real prison terms in a strict regime colony were received in absentia by former chairman of the board of Ukrtatnafta CJSC Pavlo Ovcharenko, Hennadiy Boholyubov, and Oleksandr Yaroslavsky.
The 12-year sentences were imposed only under Article 210 of the Criminal Code. For the second episode of embezzlement on an especially large scale (Article 160 of the Criminal Code), the court sentenced each to 8 years in prison and immediately released them due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, the Prosecutor's Office of Tatarstan clarified.
The court also partially satisfied the claim of the victim company for 10.8 billion rubles, and ordered part of the property seized in the case to be confiscated to state revenue.
The interests of the defendants were represented by lawyers from Almetyevsk, the “Kama Criminal Law Center” of Izhevsk, and the Moscow law office “EPAM," which also works with clients outside the Russian Federation. The position of the victim company was represented by the head of the legal department of Tatneft PJSC Dmitry Medvedev and his colleague Svetlana Sultanova.
According to participants in the proceedings, during the debate, the defense tried to get the case returned to prosecutors and pointed out the difficulties of presenting evidence in an in absentia format. The prosecution, however, requested identical sentences of 14 years and 11 months in a strict regime penal colony with fines of 900 thousand rubles under the article on organizing a criminal community for all “in absentia” defendants, and also indicated that the 10-year statute of limitations had expired for the second episode.
Recall that, according to the investigation, from December 4, 2006, to October 19, 2007, the defendants, while outside the Russian Federation, created an organized criminal group. Then, together with individuals whose criminal cases were separated into separate proceedings, they appropriated oil supplied through an intermediary company. Nearly 860 thousand tons of oil worth $439 million were sent by pipeline through a number of intermediaries to the reservoirs of the Ukrtatnafta oil refinery in the Poltava region of Ukraine.
The claims in this transaction resulted in a criminal case 12 years later — in 2021, preliminary data on damages of 4 billion rubles were announced. By the time the case was sent to court, law enforcement estimated the amount stolen at 10.8 billion rubles. Moreover, to ensure recovery in civil suits, officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan seized assets and shares of Petrus JSC, one of the leaders of the PET packaging market in Russia, believing this company to be affiliated with the in absentia defendants. The list of seized property worth 20.7 billion rubles included non-residential premises, buildings, and land plots in St. Petersburg, cities in the Moscow region, and the Ryazan, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Samara, Bryansk, Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, and Omsk regions. Representatives of “Petrus” also participated in the criminal proceedings.
It is noteworthy that after the in absentia arrest of Boholyubov and Kolomoisky* by the Vakhitovsky Court of Kazan in November 2022, the latter was detained for crimes in his homeland. At that time, he was charged with fraud and money laundering of $13 million, with its transfer abroad through controlled banking structures. In 2024, charges of organizing a contract killing of the director of a legal company who refused to comply with demands to cancel and invalidate decisions of the general shareholders' meeting were added.
In Russia, in 2023, the in absentia defendant was placed on the list of terrorists and extremists — for financial support of neo-Nazi armed groups.
In 2026, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tatarstan considered the investigation completed; in March, the prosecutor's office approved the indictment and sent petitions to the court to hear the case without the defendants due to the impossibility of their extradition amid the international situation.
The court granted the petition but deemed it necessary to classify the proceedings “to preserve commercial secrets” — at the request of the victim party.
In the case with evidence in 130 volumes, Almetyevsk city court judge Gulnara Bagautdinova held 13 hearings and retired to the deliberation room two weeks ago.
According to Realnoe Vremya, the defense and representatives of “Petrus” plan to appeal today's verdict.
Note
Included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of persons involved in extremist activity or terrorism.