MOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian banker accused of a series of frauds worth over 2 billion rubles ($61 million) has been extradited to Russia from Austria, Russian police said Thursday.
Alexander Gitelson, 63, was detained in a town outside Vienna in April after being arrested by a Moscow court in absentia in 2010 and sought on an international arrest warrant.
“Alexander Gitelson, who was found guilty of fraud and is suspected of giving large bribes, has been extradited,” Russia’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Between 2006 and 2008, Gitelson used his Bank of East-European Finance Corporation to receive about $15.1 million of illegal funds, a crime for which he has already been sentenced to five years in prison, according to police.
He is also suspected of a series of other frauds, including arranging the transfer of $58 million from the government of St. Petersburg, police said.
Gitelson will be transferred to St. Petersburg, where he will be questioned about the other alleged offenses, according to a report in Russia’s Kommersant newspaper Thursday.
