A Former Minister Born In Minsk Was Convicted In Russia
- 11.11.2026, 15:19
Abyzov orchestrated the theft of $5 million.
The Tagansky Court in Moscow found the former Russian Minister for Open Government, Minsk native Mikhail Abyzov, guilty of investment fraud involving the Russian Venture Company (RVC). This was reported by Moskvichmag.
According to investigators, in 2016 Abyzov organized the embezzlement of $5 million that the state-owned RVC had invested in the American company Alion Energy, which operated in the solar energy sector. The money was intended for the development of promising technologies, but, according to the prosecution, it was diverted through affiliated entities and embezzled.
Abyzov did not admit guilt. He claimed that he himself had invested in Alion Energy and lost money along with other investors. The defense insisted that a failed venture capital investment is not equivalent to fraud.
Taking into account his previous sentence, the final sentence amounted to 14 years in a maximum-security prison. In addition, the court imposed an additional fine of more than 80 million Russian rubles (about one million dollars). The prosecution had sought an eight-year sentence in the new case, and, when combined with the first sentence, 15 years in a strict-regime penal colony and a fine of 90 million rubles.
Abyzov’s first sentence was handed down in December 2023 by the Preobrazhensky Court of Moscow: 12 years in a maximum-security prison and a fine of 80 million rubles for forming a criminal organization, fraud, and other crimes. The court found that between 2011 and 2014, Abyzov and his accomplices embezzled approximately 4 billion rubles from the Novosibirsk energy companies “Sibeko” and “Regional Electric Networks.” To do so, according to the verdict, they used fictitious transactions to purchase shares at inflated prices through a Cypriot company. The former minister was also found guilty of illegal participation in business activities.
Abyzov was born in Minsk in 1972, attended school there, and then moved to Moscow. He was arrested in the spring of 2019 on charges of embezzlement and transferring four billion rubles abroad.