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Moscow Court System Suspected of $4.8 Million Embezzlement

Moscow City Court chairwoman Olga Yegorova

Moscow's court system is suspected of embezzling more than 300 million rubles ($4.8 million) allocated for translation services, the RBC newspaper reported Tuesday, citing Moscow City Court chairwoman Olga Yegorova.

Court officials claimed to have spent 322 million rubles on translation services, which are required if a defendant does not understand Russian, but court documents account for only 7.3 million rubles of that sum, the report said.

"This is about 44 times less than the stated sum," Yegorova was quoted as saying in an official letter to Supreme Court head Vyacheslav Lebedev, adding that the inquiry's results would be handed over to investigators.

Earlier Yegorova complained that 60 percent of funds allocated to courts for computer-related needs were not spent on technology, the Meduza news website reported.

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