MOSCOW, June 23 (RAPSI) – A court in California, U.S., has dismissed a motion lodged by Alfa-Bank, one of the largest Russia’s banks, seeking enforcement of a $30 million ruling against Oleg Yakovlev, the former co-owner of a chain of stores selling toys and children's clothing, Daily Report reported.

As it is mentioned, Yakovlev, once co-owner of a chain of Banana-Mama children's stores in Russia, has signed a surety contract for tens of millions of dollars and rubles for Trial Trading House Company where he reportedly was a shareholder. In 2008, the company defaulted.

In 2009, Alfa-Bank turned to Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court seeking repayment of the debt from Yakovlev, who had fled the country and requested political asylum in the United States by that time.

In September 2009, the Moscow court ordered the businessman in his absence to pay the bank $30,530,136.

In 2011, Trial Trading was declared bankrupt and liquidated, Alfa-Bank's suit said.

In 2014, the bank applied to the San Diego County Superior Court asking it to enforce the Moscow court’s ruling.

During the June hearing Yakovlev argued that he knew nothing about the Russian trial and court’s decision. The plaintiff in turn insisted that Yakovlev had been properly informed of the suit under Russian law and said that Alfa-Bank sent notifications about its claim to the defendant’s former home and office, the agency reported.

The San Diego County Superior Court held that the bank had not properly informed Yakovlev that he “was the subject of a Russian lawsuit and default judgment stemming from a guaranty he signed two years before he left Russia”, according to Daily Report.