MOSCOW, August 5 (RAPSI) - The Moscow City Court approved an extension of the house arrest of former Rosbank CEO Vladimir Golubkov, who is accused of bribery, RAPSI reports form the courtroom.

The court thus rejected the defense's appeal that sought a more lenient detention method, such as a travel restriction order.

In May, police arrested Golubkov, who had headed the bank since 2008, while 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, in order to restructure an $80 million debt.

The police believe that former senior vice-president Tamara Polyanitsyna was also involved in the deal. Both executives face fines of up to 70 times the size of the bribe and prison terms of up to seven years.

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.