MOSCOW, December 20 (RAPSI) – The criminal case against Yelena Kotova, Russian former top representative at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) who was charged with seeking a bribe of $1.4 million, has been submitted to a Moscow court, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office reported Friday.

The case will be considered at the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow. A trial date has yet to be set.

The Interior Ministry announced in January that Kotova and Igor Lebedev, former top manager of a leading Russian bank, had been charged with abuse of office and their relations in the business community to solicit funds from a Canadian oil company.

The investigation discovered that Kotova solicited $1.425 million from representatives of a Canadian oil company in exchange for helping it get a $95 million loan from the EBRD. Lebedev allegedly acted as a negotiator between Kotova and the borrower and also laid down the conditions and guarantees of the deal.

Kotova was one of four Russian officials assigned to the EBRD who came under investigation for alleged corruption two years ago and had their diplomatic immunity lifted. She was dismissed in 2011 by Russia’s economy ministry as the country's representative on the board of the bank, founded in 1991 to help finance eastern Europe's transition to market democracy.

Kotova, a former World Bank and IMF official and senior manager with Russian lenders, who represented Russia, Belarus and Tajikistan at the EBRD, denies all allegations against her. She said the case against her was politically loaded, because it was opened at the time when she was considered for the post of vice president at the bank.