MOSCOW, June 3 (RAPSI) – A Moscow court convicted four men on Monday of kidnapping the son of software empire founder Yevgeny Kaspersky, and sentenced them to jail terms of between seven and 11 years behind bars.
The investigation into the case found Nikolai Savelyev and his son Nikolai, together with Semyon Gromov, Oleg Mayukov and Alexei Ustimchuk, followed the CEO's 20-year-old son Ivan Kaspersky in March 2011, carrying out extensive surveillance to find out his daily schedule.
The suspects grabbed Ivan Kaspersky in the Moscow district of Strogino on April 19, 2011, threw him into their car, and handcuffed and blindfolded him, the Investigative Committee reported.
Then they drove him to an undisclosed location in the Moscow Region, where he was held for a ransom of 3 million euros ($4.3 million).
He was freed five days later as a result of a raid by riot police and Federal Security Service officers. The police tricked the conspirators into thinking a ransom would be paid, RIA Novosti reported previously.
Police also spread misinformation in the Russian media that Kaspersky had already been released and that his family had asked law enforcers not to get involved to avoid publicity.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement last August that special services officer Capt. Alexei Ustimchuk organized the kidnapping and provided the perpetrators with three cars and 20 cellular telephones to carry out the abduction.
Ustimchuk, who earlier signed a plea bargain, had already been sentenced to four and a half years in a high security prison.
Gromov, Mayukov and the Savelyevs were charged with kidnapping, while Gromov and the Savelyevs were also charged with extortion.
Later on Saturday afternoon, Mayukov was sentenced to seven years behind bars, Gromov to nine years, Nikolay Savelyev to 11 years and his son, also called Nikolay, to 10 years in jail.
Russia’s Kaspersky Lab is a leading developer of anti-virus protection software. Yevgeny Kaspersky, its CEO, was estimated to be the 125th richest man in Russia in 2011 with an $800-million fortune, according to Forbes.
Updated on Tuesday with details of the sentences handed down in lead and penultimate paragraph.
