Ural Federal District’s Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs carried out an investigation that revealed some large-scale theft of Sverdlovenergosbyt’s funds.

It was detected that in the course of payment transactions with other companies and while paying off the non-existent electricity supply debts, some 160 million RUR were transferred into various bank accounts and then stolen from the company. As a result, this state-private joint stock company incurred considerable losses.

The law-enforcement agencies have already instituted legal proceeding; the criminal lawsuit involves a charge based on Article 159 (part 4) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code (fraud); the punishment might be up to ten years in jail.