The court sentenced the “crab king” Kan to 17 years in prison for organizing a murder

Moscow. 26 April. INTERFAX.RU – The Primorye Regional Court on Friday sentenced Oleg Kan, an internationally wanted Sakhalin businessman, the “crab king” (as he is called in the media), to 17 years in prison in the case of organizing a contract murder, Interfax was told by the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District.

“Kan was convicted of organizing a murder for hire (Part 3 of Article 33, Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) of businessman Valery Phidenko in Vladivostok,” said a representative of the department.

The court found that in 2010 Kan organized the murder of businessman Phidenko, who, according to his suspicion, was involved in the attempt on his life. The defendant, the report says, developed a crime plan and found, for a reward, the perpetrator of the murder and an accomplice – a resident of the Sakhalin region. The accomplice invited the entrepreneur to Vladivostok under the guise of business negotiations to develop commercial activities. Following the instructions, Phidenko arrived at the Three Bogatyrs restaurant, next to which he was shot.

Since Kan fled from the investigation outside the Russian Federation and is on the international wanted list, the court chose a preventive measure in absentia in the form of detention.

The criminal charges were supported by a group of state prosecutors led by Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Dmitry Demeshin. In January, the state prosecution asked Kan to be sentenced to 19 years in prison in a high-security penal colony.

As reported, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation filed two claims with the Arbitration Court of the Primorsky Territory against Sakhalin and Primorye fishing companies and related persons for a total amount of 376 billion rubles.

The largest of the claims – for 358.7 billion rubles – was filed against the fishing industrialist Kan, members of his family and the Rodnye Islands charitable foundation, the founders of which are a number of companies controlled by Kan’s relatives. According to the plaintiff, this group of individuals caught crab and other biological resources according to quotas, then sold the catch to other countries, withdrawing profits from this activity to accounts in foreign banks. Kang has a residence permit in Korea. This claim was satisfied on March 21 in full, the contracts were declared void, shares in the companies were recovered in favor of the state (on April 12 the shares became the property of the Russian Federation). During the hearing, the defendants reported Kan’s death in February 2023, but the Prosecutor General’s Office called it a staged act.

Consideration of the second claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office for 17.4 billion rubles. will continue on May 2.