MOSCOW. A court has rejected the appeal filed by Maria Kitaeva, the common-law wife of former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, in a high-profile embezzlement case. Kitaeva sought the return of money seized from her mother`s apartment during a search related to the investigation. This information was reported by RIA Novosti, citing lawyer Murad Musaev.
According to Musaev, the funds confiscated from Maria Kitaeva`s mother`s home belonged to her parents, with whom Timur Ivanov had no connection. Following her father`s death, Kitaeva, as his heir, requested the restoration of the appellate review period, arguing that the court`s decision affected her rights. However, the court deemed her reasons insufficient and denied the motion.
The lawyer also stated that the defense had filed a motion to recuse the panel of judges of the First Court of Appeal, which was set to review the verdict in the ferry procurement embezzlement case, but this motion was also rejected. Musaev noted that his own appeal had not reached the court by mail, with only supplementary documents arriving. The court, considering this a minor issue, proceeded with the appeals filed by other defense lawyers.
Earlier, on July 1, the Moscow City Court sentenced Ivanov to 13 years in a penal colony and a fine of 100 million rubles. He was also stripped of state awards, including the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” II degree and the honorary title “Honored Builder of Russia.” Anton Filatov, the former head of “Oboronlogistika,” received a 12.5-year sentence and a 25 million ruble fine. Both defendants pleaded not guilty.
The investigation established that in 2015, Ivanov, then head of “Oboronstroy,” colluded with Filatov, Alexander Bugaevsky (chairman of the board of the soon-to-be-bankrupt “Interkommerts” bank), and several other individuals. Their scheme involved embezzling a portion of the bank`s funds allocated for the purchase of the “Agios Laurentius” and “Maria-Elena” ferries for the Kerch Strait crossing, circumventing sanctions. The Investigative Committee determined that over 216 million rubles were stolen.
Furthermore, the investigation revealed that the defendants misappropriated 44.9 million euros (equivalent to 3.92 billion rubles at the 2015 exchange rate) from “Interkommerts” bank through fictitious currency purchase and sale agreements.
Subsequently, the collapsed “Interkommerts” bank, represented by the Deposit Insurance Agency, was recognized as a victim. The court ordered Ivanov and Filatov to jointly pay 3.9 billion rubles to the bank. The claim from the second victim, the “Main Directorate for the Arrangement of Troops,” for 216.5 million rubles, was also fully satisfied by the court.
