MOSCOW, July 13 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) – The Supreme Court of Russia has upheld arrest in absentia of the Moscow Commercial Court’s ex-judge Irina Baranova suspected of assisting in bribery and large-scale fraud, RAPSI learnt from the court’s press-service on Thursday.

The court dismissed an appeal against her detention for two months after the day she is to be apprehended.

Baranova’s possible involvement in a corporate raid attempt was revealed during investigation into a case of the hostile takeover of a building in central Moscow.

Earlier it was reported that Baranova left Russia in December 2013 on a tourist vacation to Miami where her son was born. It was reported that medical complications made her stay in the U.S.

According to investigators, Baranova being a judge helped the building’s former owners, businessmen Mikhail Chernov and Mikhail Balakirev, repossess their property. Baranova allegedly convinced Chernov to bribe a judge in the case, Yulia Bespalova.

In September 2013, Chernov and Balakirev were declared guilty of fraud and attempting to launder the proceeds of a crime and received 9 and 7 years in prison, respectively. They have appealed the ruling.

Baranova, who has a PhD in law, was appointed as judge in 2007 and became presiding judge in a court that hears cases of privatization, property and lease rights in 2012. The Moscow Commercial Court writes on its website that the total income of Baranova’s family in 2012 was 1.2 million rubles ($18,500), of which the judge declared 661,000 rubles ($10,200) and her spouse 590,000 rubles ($9,100). The family did not declare its 2013 income.