MOSCOW, April 22 (RAPSI) – The Investigative Committee of Russia has launched a criminal case against Moscow Commercial Court Judge Irina Baranova who is suspected of assisting in bribery and large scale fraud, Kommersant newspaper reported on Friday.

In December 2015 the Appeals Chamber of Russia’s Supreme Court found investigation into Baranova’s activities legal.

“The judge was assisting in corporate raid over the building in Moscow’s center. Several people have already been sentenced in this case while investigators tried to bring the judge, who has special status, to justice in 2013. Only now it became possible after the judge left to the U.S.,” Kommersant reported.

According to Kommersant, the Head Moscow department of the Investigative Committee will be in charge of investigation while being assisted by the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Baranova’s possible involvement in a corporate raid attempt was revealed during an 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, the judge helped the building’s former owners, businessmen Mikhail Chernov and Mikhail Balakirev, repossess their property. Baranova allegedly convinced Chernov to bribe the 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 nine and seven years in prison, respectively. They have appealed the verdict.

Baranova, who has a PhD in law, was appointed 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 has not declared its 2013 income.