MOSCOW, August 9 (RAPSI) – The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has dismissed an appeal by Lazar Markus, husband of convicted ex-president of Vneshprombank Larisa Markus, against an approved procedure for conducting bidding for the sale of his property, according to court records.

On June 7, a commercial court ordered bidding for the sale of 11 land plots and an accommodation building belonging to the bankrupt debtor. The starting prices of plots are ranging from 308,000 to 4.8 million rubles; while the price of the residential premises in the Moscow Region starts from 27 million rubles (over $400,000), the regulations on procedures for bidding reads.

In May, the Moscow Commercial Court extended bankruptcy proceedings against Lazar Markus for six months. According to administrative receiver Alexander Krylov, the applicant, whose motion the court granted, the extension of procedure was needed to complete all measures stipulated by the bankruptcy law.

In March, the court set temporary restriction on departure of Lazar Markus abroad. The limit has been imposed until the court completes or terminates bankruptcy proceedings against the debtor.

On May 23, 2018, the court ordered asset disposition in relation to Markus. A bankruptcy claim has been earlier lodged against him VTB24 over his debt worth over 319 million rubles to the bank.

Earlier, his wife Larisa Markus was declared bankrupt.

In May 2017, Markus was sentenced to 9 years in prison for embezzlement. Later, her sentence was reduced by 6 months.

Investigators believe that ex-Vneshprombank president Larisa Markus along with her brother Georgy Bedzhamov, who once co-owned the bank, created an organized crime group to siphon money from the bank. The group including former vice-president of the bank Yekaterina Glushakova allegedly granted loans to sub-companies and did not refund money to Vneshprombank. Allegedly, from May 2009 to December 2015, conspirators managed to embezzle about 114 billion rubles.

Bedzhamov has been put on the international wanted list

In March 2016, the Moscow Commercial Court declared Vneshprombank bankrupt. Vneshprombank was one of the top 40 by assets before it lost license in January of the same year.