- Sputnik International
Russia
The latest news and stories from Russia. Stay tuned for updates and breaking news on defense, politics, economy and more.

Russian ex-UN official returns to Moscow to finish U.S. sentence

Subscribe
MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) - Vladimir Kuznetsov, a Russian former UN official convicted by a U.S. court of money laundering, returned to Moscow on Wednesday to serve the remaining 16 months of his jail term.

Kuznetsov, 50, who worked for the United Nations Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, was arrested in September 2005 after borrowing $300,000 from a Russian colleague. U.S. investigators said that he was aware the funds had been acquired by criminal means.

"Under a decision by the Moscow City Court, Vladimir Kuznetsov will serve four years and three months in prison and pay a fine of 1 million rubles ($36,450), excluding the sentence he has already served," the Russian Foreign Ministry's information and press department said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service said earlier Kuznetsov would be held at a Russian pretrial detention center while he awaits a court decision on where he must serve the remaining 16 months of his sentence.

Kuznetsov, who has always denied the charges, served part of his term at Allenwood Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania.

He spent two years under supervised release on a $1.5 million bail, the bulk of which was provided by the Russian government, before a U.S. district court sentenced him to four years and three months in prison and a $73,000 tine in October 2007.

Kuznetsov's transfer was Russia's first since it adopted the Council of Europe's 1983 Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons last December. "We are satisfied that it was a success," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

A district court in New York confirmed earlier this month that on October 31 a payment of $73,671 was received, a requirement for the court to begin considering his return to Russia to serve his remaining time.

The Russian held diplomatic immunity as a UN employee, but the status was revoked by Kofi Annan, the then-secretary general, allowing the FBI to arrest him.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала