Russian court sentences German investor to prison in fraud case

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Monday sentenced German investor Ralph Novak to five years in prison on charges of fraud in a scheme involving the sale of shares in Russian car-sharing company BelkaCar, his lawyer told Reuters.

Russia's RBC newspaper said Novak was a dual Russian-German national and general director of Singular CIS, an investment consulting firm based in Zug, Switzerland.

RBC reported that Novak was arrested for fraud in early 2022 alongside Ilmar Azmukhanov, director of investment at the Winterberg Group AG, a firm also based in Zug.

Azmukhanov was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday.

Novak, who has been held under house arrest, did not appear in court on Monday, his lawyer said.

"He is not at home, we are trying to find him," Konstantin Elfimov said.

Elfimov told Reuters that the case against Novak was opened in 2021 after Benedikt Sobotka, co-founder of the Swiss company Bryanston Resources AG, appealed to the Russian interior ministry and accused Novak and German businessman Fabian Kroeher of selling a 52% stake in BelkaCar at a reduced price behind his back.

RBC reported that a Russian court arrested Kroeher in absentia - meaning he was not in the country at the time his arrest was ordered - in August 2022 on fraud charges amounting to 47 million euros ($51 million).

Kroeher, whose LinkedIn page says he is a co-founder of Singular CIS and Winterberg Group, did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.

Singular CIS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Winterberg Group did not pick up a telephone call.

A fourth figure in the case, Russian businessman and philanthropist Boris Zimin, was arrested in absentia in 2022 by a Moscow court, online records show.

Zimin, who lives outside Russia, could not immediately be reached for comment.

($1 = 0.9234 euros)

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov and Lucy Papachristou; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Alex Richardson)