A Moscow court on Monday sentenced Russian businessman Viktor Baturin, the brother-in-law of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, to a suspended three-year jail term for fraud.
Baturin, the brother of property construction tycoon Yelena Baturina, was found guilty of selling one property in downtown Moscow to two men for $857,000 and $1.5 million within the space of one month in 2008.
Baturin pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
The Presnensky district court also fined Baturin $10,800 in damages.
Dmitry Zhuravlyov, a gas entrepreneur who forked out the $1.5 million in June 2008, said Baturin had returned his money to him.
In a newspaper interview last year, Baturin said he was being targeted by his sister, who he fell out with in 2005 over the running of their construction company Inteco.
"I am sure that my sister has a hand in this," he told the Kommersant daily in November.
Baturina, who is believed to be Russia's richest woman with an estimated fortune of $1.1 billion, has denied the claim. Baturin asked prosecutors in fall 2010 to open a probe against his sister over 3 billion rubles ($100 million) of unpaid work he did for the construction giant.
MOSCOW, June 6 (RIA Novosti)
