A Moscow court has sentenced two former senior government officials in Russia's North Caucasus region of Daghestan to prison terms for fraud.
Lefortovo district court on October 28 handed former Acting Prime Minister Abdusamad Gamidov to 6 and 1/2 years in jail and Acting Deputy Prime Minister Rayudin Yusufov 5 and 1/2 years for misappropriating more than 40 million rubles from the regional budget ($630,000).
Investigators accused Gamidov and Yusufov of stealing budget money slated for the reconstruction of a building designed to temporarily hold foreign citizens.
The case is part of a larger investigation into corrruption in the region, Interfax reported. To date, nine people have been arrested and five sentenced while the state continues to investigate.
Daghestan has been at the epicenter of a wave of violence by organized criminal groups linked to business turf wars, political disputes, clan rivalry, and the spread of militant Islam in recent years.
