Businessman Viktor Baturin, brother of former Mayor Yury Luzhkov's billionaire wife, was handed a three-year suspended sentence Monday for large-scale real estate fraud.
Moscow's Presnensky District Court also slapped Baturin, brother of Yelena Baturina, who heads Inteko developer, with a fine of 300,000 rubles ($11,000), RIA-Novosti reported.
Baturin was convicted of selling a piece of nonresidential real estate downtown to two different buyers consequently, charging the first, who was not identified, 23 million rubles ($826,000) and the second, businessman Dmitry Zhuravlyov, another $1.5 million, the report said.
Baturin had earlier paid $3 million to the alleged victims, but pleaded not guilty. He has also said the case was fabricated due to his ties to Luzhkov, but did not elaborate, Rapsi.ru reported. Nevertheless, he called the verdict "fair in general" and said he would not appeal.
The property, located in a building on 2nd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ulitsa, is currently arrested in a pending lawsuit by Baturin's ex-wife, musical producer Yana Rudkovskaya, who is seeking partition of the property.
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