Ex-Lawmaker and Rolf Founder Jailed in Absentia for $47m Smuggling Scheme
A Moscow judge has sentenced the exiled billionaire and former lawmaker Sergei Petrov, founder of Russia's largest car dealership, to nine years in prison in absentia for his role in a scheme to smuggle billions of rubles out of the country, a case he claims is politically motivated.
A Russian court has sentenced Sergei Petrov, the exiled founder of the country's largest car dealership and a former member of parliament, to nine years in a penal colony in absentia, in a case that underscores the Kremlin's tightening grip on dissent and private enterprise. The Moscow judge also fined the billionaire 800,000 rubles ($9,400) after finding him guilty of using forged documents to transfer approximately 4 billion rubles ($47 million) to a company registered in Cyprus in 2014. The judge handed down sentences of 8.5 years in absentia to Tatyana Lukovetskaya, a former CEO of the Rolf dealership network, and Georgiy Kafkalia, a director of the Cypriot firm Panabel Limited, for their alleged involvement in the scheme.
Petrov, who currently resides in Austria, served in the State Duma between 2006 and 2016 as a member of the left-leaning A Just Russia party. He has consistently denied the charges and has accused the Russian authorities of manufacturing the case to punish him for his opposition to President Vladimir Putin. He openly supported anti-government protests against Putin's re-election in 2011-12, voted against a law that banned US citizens from adopting Russian children, and abstained from the vote on the 2014 annexation of Crimea. These acts of defiance, he contends, have made him a target.
Prosecutors alleged that the group funnelled proceeds from Rolf's commercial operations to Panabel Limited using a fraudulent agreement that allowed the purchase of shares in Rolf Estate at an artificially inflated price. The verdict follows a broader pattern of state asset seizures that accelerated after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In December 2023, Putin ordered the state to seize Rolf from its Cypriot entity, Delance Limited, and Rolf Motors, marking one of the first major confiscations of a Russian-owned business. Earlier that year, Rolf's former business development chief, Anatoly Kairo, was sentenced to 8.5 years on similar smuggling charges.
Forbes last ranked Petrov as Russia's 127th richest businessman in 2021, estimating his net worth at $950 million. His conviction in absentia is unlikely to bring him back to Russia, but it serves as a stark warning to other wealthy individuals who might harbour political ambitions or dare to cross the Kremlin. The sentence, delivered by a court that critics say operates without independence, is the latest chapter in the systematic silencing of opposition voices and the consolidation of state control over the Russian economy under the cover of legal proceedings.