The Tagansky District Court of Moscow sentenced the former top manager of the Russian Venture Company (RVC) Yana Ryazantseva and co-founder of the Bright Capital fund Mikhail Chuchkevich to six and five and a half years in a general regime colony, follows from the telegram channel courts of general jurisdiction of the capital. They were found guilty of a crime under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud committed by an organized group or on a particularly large scale or resulting in the deprivation of a citizen’s right to residential premises).
The court also partially satisfied RVC’s civil claim against Ryazantsev and Chuchkevich for damages: they were awarded 394.984 million rubles in favor of the company. The court also transferred 2.183 million rubles to RVC to pay off the civil claim. and $14,781 thousand (RUB 1,368 million), which were seized during a search at the office of the Solar Management company.
Solar Management was the management company of the Solar Energy group. She, together with Bright Capital Management (part of the Bright Capital venture fund) announced in August 2014 that they would invest 10 billion rubles. in the construction of six solar power plants in the Astrakhan region. In September of the same year, Solar Management commissioned a solar power plant with a capacity of 250 kW.
In November 2022 Kommersant reportedthat the Moscow prosecutor’s office approved the indictment in the case of Ryazantsev and Chuchkevich. They were accused of stealing 1.3 billion rubles from RVC. under the guise of investing in the American Alion Energy (specializing in the development and construction of solar power plants, robotics and design automation).
According to investigators, in December 2012, Ryazantsev entered into a conspiracy with a member of the board of directors of Alion Energy, Chuchkevich, and in 2012–2016, through the British fund RVC I LP, they transferred $22.7 million (2.102 billion rubles) under loan agreements from RVC’s account to Alion Energy account in Binbank. According to the Investigative Committee, these funds were transferred contrary to the decisions of the RVC board of directors. According to investigators, Ryazantsev and Chuchkevich transferred this money to the accounts of other companies, cashed it and embezzled it.
In June 2021, the former general director of RVC, Alexander Povalko, was finally charged under Part 2 of Art. 201 of the Criminal Code (abuse of power resulting in grave consequences). Povalko was detained in June 2020; the day before, searches were carried out at his home and RVK offices. Chuchkevich’s lawyer told Kommersant that the two cases are being investigated separately.
Ryazantsev and Chuchkevich were detained in June 2018, but in March 2019 they were released from custody on their own recognizance.
In February 2022, the Tagansky Court of Moscow returned Povalko’s criminal case to the prosecutor’s office to eliminate violations.
