MOSCOW, April 24 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court has registered the AMT Bank's bankruptcy petition.
The bankruptcy application was filed by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA), which was appointed to act as the bank's receiver last October.
The bank's net assets were 8.57 billion rubles ($290.6 million) on April 1, 2012, including its reserves. Meanwhile, its debt was 32 billion rubles ($1 billion) as per the creditors' claims list. A total of 15.46 billion rubles ($524 million) are first priority claims, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) learned form a first priority creditor who attended a bank creditor meeting.
AMT Bank (previously known as BTA Bank) is a multipurpose financial institution with nine branches and 26 offices. According to the RIA Analytics Economic Research Center, AMT ranked seventy-first in terms of assets among Russia's top banks as of April 1, 2011.
The Moscow Commercial Court upheld the Central Bank's petition for the ATM Bank's bankruptcy in October 2011. The Deposit Insurance Agency was appointed to act as the failed bank's receiver. The Central Bank revoked AMT's license in July for forging account data. The banks deposit portfolio was 15 billion rubles ($499.41 million).
According to the agency, it will pay a record 13 billion rubles ($432.82 million) to AMT's depositors.
According to the bank's website, businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov directly owns a 19.7 percent stake in the bank.
Ablyazov has been living in the UK since 2009. The police opened a criminal case against him on suspicion of fraud and withdrawing funds through shell companies.
Ablyazov was recently sentenced to 22 months in prison for breaching court orders and is now hiding from justice. The bank hopes to secure and enforce court decisions to return $5 billion.