Dmitry Zotov drove the cars at an inflated price

The Nikulinsky Court of Moscow sentenced the former general director of the leasing company TransFin-M to 7 years in a general regime colony. Dmitry Zotov in the case of the theft of about 1.2 billion rubles, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

“The court finally imposed a sentence of imprisonment for a period of 7 years, with the sentence being served in a general regime correctional colony with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions for 2 years. The court also partially satisfied the civil claim of the victim.”,” the press service clarified.

Zotov was found guilty of committing a crime under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) (fraud on an especially large scale).

According to investigators, a number of organizations controlled by Zotov entered into agreements for the purchase and sale of railway cars with the aim of their further resale at an inflated price. Later, over 3 thousand cars were sold at a cost much higher than the actual one. The investigation believes that the businessman stole the difference and distributed it among himself and unidentified accomplices. The amount of material damage exceeded 1.2 billion rubles.

Zotov’s first case

At the end of February 2023, the Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction upheld the sentence of Zotov, who was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months in prison in a case of theft of property worth about 2.8 billion rubles. “Throughout the entire investigative and judicial process, PJSC TransFin-M, despite the flow of false reports regarding the activities of the company, as well as its employees, disseminated in the open information field by representatives of the convicted Zotov, purposefully refrained from any comments on this criminal case. An objective assessment of the actions of the convicted person was given by the investigation and subsequent open trials in the courts, and is also confirmed by his fair decision to leave the sentence and appeal ruling unchanged, and cassation complaints – without satisfaction,” noted representatives of PJSC TransFin-M, lawyers Eduard Isetsky and Alexey Mezentsev.

In November 2021, the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow found Zotov guilty of committing a crime under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) (fraud on an especially large scale) and sentenced him to 7 years in a general regime colony. Subsequently, the Moscow City Court reduced the businessman’s sentence by one and a half years.

The court found that Zotov, as well as his ex-deputy Elena Sergeeva, sold 1,000 railway cars to an affiliated structure of InvestAktiv LLC, which caused Transfin-M damage of about 2.8 billion rubles.

A criminal case was initiated at the request of the new management of Transfin-M, which notes that this transaction was carried out without any approval from the competent authorities of the company.