Anzor Pruidze, a developer convicted four times of defrauding real estate investors and later sent to fight in Ukraine after his most recent sentencing, has been detained in Moscow after fleeing his military unit, Kommersant, one of Russia's leading business newspapers, reported.
News of the arrest was confirmed by Daniil Sinitsyn, a representative of an initiative group representing defrauded investors. Sinitsyn said he had received the information from the investigator handling the ongoing fraud case against Pruidze, according to Kommersant.
Fraud convictions tied to Adler complex
Pruidze's most recent convictions stemmed from the sale of apartments in the Horizont residential complex in Adler, a Black Sea resort district of Sochi, the Russian city that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics. He sold units for which shared-participation agreements, the standard contracts used by buyers investing in unfinished construction in Russia, had already been signed with other purchasers.
In May 2025, a court sentenced Pruidze to five years in a penal colony over the scheme. He then signed a contract with Russia's Ministry of Defense and was sent to the zone of what Moscow calls its "special military operation," the term Russian authorities use for the country's war in Ukraine.
Fled his unit, placed on wanted list
In July 2025, Pruidze left his military unit without authorization. He was subsequently placed on an international wanted list before being detained in Moscow.
The case against him is being handled by Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's main agency for investigating serious crimes, including large-scale fraud.
Shared-equity fraud in Russia
Russia introduced a law in 2019 requiring developers to use bank escrow accounts for shared-equity sales, a reform intended to prevent the kind of fraud Pruidze was convicted of, in which buyers pay for apartments that are later resold or never completed.
Complaints from defrauded buyers, sometimes organized into initiative groups like the one that reported Pruidze's arrest, have periodically drawn attention from Russian regulators and law enforcement.
Since 2022, Russian authorities have recruited convicted prisoners for military service in Ukraine in exchange for reduced or suspended sentences. The practice began with the Wagner Group, the private military company founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, and was later extended to the regular armed forces after Prigozhin's death in 2023.
