Three top bank executives given lengthy prison terms

May 31, Pozirk. Andrej Bryšcieleŭ, a former chairman of the board at Biełinvestbank, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison in Minsk for allegedly taking a large bribe, the Prosecutor General’s Office reports.

The banker was also fined 80,000 rubels (about $24,950) and banned from managerial jobs for five years.

Bryšcieleŭ has been in custody since April 2022.

Two other defendants in the same case, former Biełinvestbank Executive Director Andrej Ramanienka and Ihar Piskunoŭ, a department head, were found guilty of abusing office. Piskunoŭ was also accused of facilitating bribery.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has not disclosed the verdicts against them but the charges carry lengthy prison sentences.

All three can appeal the sentences as the sentence has not yet entered into force, prosecutors said.

Two months earlier, Aleh Harełaŭ, a former top executive at Biełinvestbank’s Homiel branch, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of bribery, inciting hatred, and illicit drug trafficking.

Also read: Former bank executive given 10 years in prison, might be targeted for political reasons