Businessman Portnyagin pleaded not guilty to money laundering

Businessman Dmitry Portnyagin pleaded not guilty to money laundering. This was announced on August 4 by a correspondent of Izvestia from the hall of the Moscow Meshchansky court.

The entrepreneur's wife Ekaterina partially admitted guilt. She confirmed the fact of giving a bribe. The third person involved in the case, Alexey Nikolaev, fully admitted his guilt.

In November last year, the businessman's criminal case was returned to the prosecutor's office because the indictment was drafted incorrectly. At that time, Portnyagin was charged with five years in prison and a heavy fine.

Portnyagin was detained in Rostov-on-Don in the case of tax evasion on April 12, 2024. Prior to that, searches and investigative measures were carried out in the premises of the Club 500 business club and the Siberia bath complex owned by the entrepreneur. On July 7, 2026, the Arbitration Court recovered more than 5.6 million rubles from the club in favor of PJSC Trekhgornaya Manufaktura.

According to the investigation, the defendant evaded paying taxes in the amount of more than 124 million rubles from 2018 to 2020. Later, he carried out financial transactions with criminally obtained money, transferring more than 91 million rubles to the accounts of third legal entities.