MOSCOW, September 13 (RAPSI) – Ex-Russian senator and Mezhprombank beneficiary Sergey Pugachev has filed a claim with the Supreme Court seeking to overturn a ruling to recover 75.6 billion rubles ($1 billion) from him and other ex-managers of the bank, the court records read.

In July, the Moscow District Commercial Court upheld lower courts’refusal to reconsider the case upon discovery of new facts.

Earlier, the claimant’s press-service has stated that neither Pugachev, nor his French lawyer due to participate in the hearings had been properly notified about the time of the hearings held on October 19, 2017, therefore, according to Pugachev, the court passed a clearly unlawful decision without the presence of the claimant and his defense.

According to the claimant, the new evidence in the case was that on September 15, 2016, a court of appeals found out that from July 9, 2012 till July 15, 2015 the Moscow Commercial Court reviewed motions and claims related to the case in an unlawful manner.

On April 30, 2015, the Moscow Commercial Court ruled in favor of the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) in a lawsuit filed to declare Pugachev and other Mezhprombank executives guilty of knowingly bankrupting the bank, primarily through the transfer of liquid assets. The court decided to debit 75.6 billion rubles from former managers of the bank.

The Moscow Commercial Court in late October granted DIA the right to forcibly collect 75.6 billion rubles from former Mezhprombank staff, including 68.5 billion rubles from Pugachev and Marina Illarionova, the last CEO of Mezhprombank, and 7.16 billion rubles from two former chief executives, Alexander Didenko and Alexey Zlobin.

In 2014, DIA filed a lawsuit with a UK court to collect the assets which Pugachev allegedly embezzled from Mezhprombank. In July 2014, London’s High Court granted an injunction to seize $2 billion worth of Pugachev’s assets in various countries. Pugachev appealed the decision, but in December 2014 London’s High Court refused to release his assets. On October 11, 2017, the High Court of Justice in London recognized trusts owned by ex-Russian senator Sergey Pugachev as sham.