Jail term for Russian tycoon who bought Whyte’s castle

● Fraudster stole £4m to fund his lavish lifestyle

A Russian tycoon who bought former Rangers owner Craig Whyte’s Highland castle has been jailed for 18 months for carrying out a £4 million fraud to fund his lavish lifestyle.

Sergey Fedotov, who purchased Castle Grant near Grantown on Spey for £1M, has admitted a massive embezzlement while he was head of the Russian Authors’ Society (RAO), which collects royalty payments on behalf of writers.

The 40-year-old businessman was arrested in Moscow last year and held in custody.

He bought the 16-century A-listed building in 2014 after it was repossessed from Whyte when he failed to keep up with mortgage payments.

He admitted carrying out the fraud during a hearing at Moscow’s Meshchansky Court on Monday.

Prosecutors told the court that Fedotov deliberately misled the RAO board, encouraging them to transfer property to a private company.

The company then sold the property to third parties, leaving the RAO out of pocket to the sum of 300 million roubles – £4m.

Russian police started inves- tigating Fedotov in 2015 after concerns were raised about where he got the funds to buy the castle, and other properties in the south of England.

During a preliminary hearing, Fedotov insisted Castle Grant was bought lawfully and said the purchase was modest as the castle was only worth the price of a small apartment in Moscow.

He said: “That castle in Scotland I have, I acknowledge. But this property is irrelevant. At the time of purchase it cost 50m roubles. The cost corresponds to the cost of a twobedroom apartment in the centre of Moscow.”

Following his sentencing, Fedotov told Russian media that he had already repaid some of the damages, and was considering an appeal against his sentence.

He said: “I’ve repaid 160m roubles out of more than 300m roubles. But in order to make these payments, I need to work: something I haven’t recently been able to do.”

Fedotov was denied bail over fears he might have fled to the UK despite his legal team’s claims that he suffers from hypertension and diabetes. His office and Moscow home were searched by police before he was brought in for questioning.

In 2015, he allowed the castle’s grounds to be used for a banquet and concert to mark the 250th anniversary celebrations of Grantown.