MOSCOW, March 11 - RAPSI. The court has upheld the 4.2 billion rubles ($136.5 million) in claims that the Wolga Deutsche Bank (WDB) has filed against its debtors, the Deposit Insurance Agency reported in a statement obtained by RAPSI on Monday.

According to the agency, whiсh is acting as the Saratov-based bank's bankruptcy receiver, the court backed 1,500 separate lawsuits of the 1,700 claims filed.
The total claim amount is 4.5 billion rubles (over $146 million).

As of February 1, enforcement proceedings have been initiated against 1,391 debtors worth 1.5 billion rubles ($48.8 million).

The Saratov Regional Commercial Court will consider the agency's request to extend receivership at the bank for another six months on March 14.

The Central Bank revoked the bank's license on May 7, 2009 for falsifying reports, as well as for reducing its capital adequacy below two percent and its own capitalization below the required minimum.

The Central Bank later filed for the WDB Bank's bankruptcy with the Saratov Commercial Court, which launched the hearings on June 18, 2009.

The case was suspended in September 2009 after the conflicting parties submitted two different bankruptcy requests to the court on September 14 that included contradictory evaluations of the bank's assets as of the same date.

The case was not resumed until April 2010.A financial evaluation was ordered from the forensic expert center in the Saratov region to resolve the issue.

On June 17, 2010, the commercial court rejected the Central Bank's request to bankrupt the WDB Bank.

The Central Bank appealed the decision with the Twelfth Commercial Court of Appeals, which upheld its claim on August 19, 2010, thus overruling the lower court decision and recognizing the WDB Bank as bankrupt.

The court ordered receivership for one year and appointed the state-run agency as the bankruptcy receiver.