{
  "id": 15774043,
  "title": "Andrei Melnikov headed Russia’s agency tasked with protecting bank depositors. Now he’s been sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for a 4 billion-ruble fraud.",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/20/andrei-melnikov-headed-russias-agency-tasked-with-protecting-bank",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-20T17:16:15.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Meduza (English)",
    "slug": "meduza-english",
    "url": "https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/10/20/andrei-melnikov-headed-russia-s-agency-tasked-with-protecting-bank-depositors-now-he-s-been-sentenced-to-4-5-years-in-prison-for-a-4-billion-ruble-fraud"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Andrei Melnikov, the former head of Russia's Deposit Insurance Agency, has been sentenced to 4.5 years in prison and fined 900,000 rubles for large-scale fraud. The court found that he stole 4 billion rubles through schemes involving the assets of Aquamir, a Novosibirsk water park in receivership administered by the agency. Melnikov pleaded guilty during the proceedings and is eligible for parole as early as July 2027, with credit for time spent in custody. His former deputy, Alexander Popelyukh, who was also under investigation at the time, testified against him and received a four-year sentence in a related case involving the theft of 200 million rubles.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}