Ivy Academia Founders to Pay $300K for Convicted Embezzlement

The founders of a number of private schools in the western San Fernando Valley were ordered by a judge this week to cough up $300,000 following their embezzling conviction earlier this year, KPCC reports.

Yevgeny "Eugene" Selivanov, 40 and founder of Ivy Academia in 2004, was found guilty of 25 felony counts, including seven counts of misappropriation of public funds, six counts of embezzlement by a public or private officer, two counts of money laundering and 10 counts of filing false tax returns. 

His wife, Tatyana Berkovich, 36, was convicted of two felony counts of misappropriation of public funds and one felony count of embezzlement by a public or private officer, along with five misdemeanor counts involving tax returns. 

Selivanov got nearly five years in jail, while Berkovich was handed down a 45-day jail sentence, according to KPCC.

Ivy Academia campuses are still open and are located in Chatsworth, Winnetka, West Hills and Woodland Hills.

For one of the buildings the couple owned, they hiked up the rent $25,000 a year and made loans out to the school and used school credit cards to buy gifts for themselves and others, KPCC reports.

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