MOSCOW, June 24 (RAPSI) - The Moscow City Court has supported the freezing of businessman Sergei Golubkov's bank accounts, the court told RAPSI on Monday.

Golubkov is brother of former Rosbank chairman Vladimir Golubkov, who is being prosecuted for bribery.

The court has thus rejected an appeal filed by Sergei Glubkov's lawyer who sought to lift the sanction, arguing that her client was not a suspect in a criminal case and that the money in these accounts had been transferred to him under a gift agreement.

In May, the police arrested Vladimir Golubkov as he was accepting 5 million rubles ($160,000) as part of a larger $1.5 million kickback from the representative of a private company. The executive was allegedly trying to extort the money from Andrei Kovalyov, a former member of the Moscow city legislature and a rock musician, for restructuring an $80 million debt.

The police believe that Rosbank Senior Vice President Tamara Polyanitsyna was also involved in the deal. Both executives face fines of up to 70 times the bribe amount and prison terms of up to seven years.

Golubkov and Polyanitsyna will remain under house arrest until mid-July.

Golubkov has said that he was innocent and that his arrest was not linked to a conflict among the bank's executives. He believes the accusations against him stem from a dispute between companies.

Golubkov headed Rosbank from 2008 until May this year.

Rosbank is a private universal bank within the Societe Generale banking group. It provides banking services to private and corporate clients and has over 600 offices in 340 cities and towns across Russia. It is one of Russia's top 10 banks in terms of assets.