MOSCOW, March 19The Basmanny Court of Moscow on Tuesday sentenced Natalya Poluektova, a former translator at the Swiss Embassy in Moscow, to four years of probation for a multimillion-dollar insurance scam, a correspondent from the courtroom reports.
According to the prosecution, for the sake of compensation, the Russian woman presented the embassy with “several hundred false documents” about medical procedures.
«Found Natalya Nikolaevna Poluektova guilty and sentence her to four years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of four years,» the judge announced the verdict. Additionally, the court ordered the convict to pay the embassy 4 million 890 thousand rubles for damages.
During the debate, the state prosecution requested five years in a general regime colony for Poluektova. The defendant's lawyer, Alexander Dobrovinsky, insisted on an acquittal and called the case fabricated.
As the defense attorney stated, the money the girl was accused of stealing belonged to “a certain insurance company that is not state-owned” — it did not make claims against the former translator, but the embassy , although recognized as the injured party, did not own this money. In his opinion, there are other inconsistencies in the case.
The Basmanny Court of Moscow had already begun to consider this criminal case, but in the spring of 2022 it returned it to the prosecutor — then Poluektova’s defense argued that the prosecution’s position “was completely overthrown.” Then the case was again sent to court for consideration.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry stated that the criminal case was initiated at the initiative of the embassy after the diplomatic mission “revealed the facts of fraud committed by Poluektova.”
According to the statement same defense, the girl became a victim of false accusations after she tried to publicize the story of the alleged sexual harassment of the former Swiss Ambassador to Russia Yves Rossier. The Swiss Foreign Ministry called these accusations slander.
A law enforcement source previously confirmed that Poluektova was indeed charged with medical insurance fraud, but could not clarify when the case was opened — before or after the accusations of harassment.