Rolf Dealership Founder Sentenced to 9 Years in Absentia in Russia

A Moscow judge on Monday sentenced Sergei Petrov, founder of Rolf, Russia's largest car dealership network, and a former lawmaker with the A Just Russia party, to nine years in prison in absentia. The court found him guilty of using forged documents to move roughly 4 billion rubles (about $47 million) to a Cyprus-registered company in 2014. Alongside the prison term, the judge imposed an 800,000-ruble (about $9,400) fine.

Petrov, now living in exile in Austria, has previously rejected the charges, claiming Russian authorities are targeting him for his opposition to the Kremlin. During his time in the State Duma from 2006 to 2016, he publicly backed protests against Vladimir Putin's 2011-12 re-election, voted against a law barring U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children, and abstained from the vote endorsing the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Former executives also convicted

The same court on Monday also handed in-absentia sentences of 8.5 years each to Tatyana Lukovetskaya, Rolf's former CEO, and Georgiy Kafkalia, director of the Cyprus-based Panabel Limited, for their roles in the alleged smuggling scheme. Prosecutors say the group diverted proceeds from Rolf's commercial operations to Panabel Limited through a forged agreement that enabled the purchase of Rolf Estate shares at an inflated price.

In December 2023, Putin ordered the state seizure of Rolf from Cypriot entities Delance Limited and Rolf Motors, one of the first major confiscations of a privately owned Russian business amid a broader wave of asset seizures following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Earlier that year, Rolf's former business development chief, Anatoly Kairo, was sentenced to 8.5 years on smuggling charges.

Forbes last placed Petrov at 127th on its list of Russia's richest businessmen in 2021, estimating his net worth at $950 million.