MOSCOW, February 6 (RAPSI) – The investigation has brought final charges against banker Alexander Gitelson regarding embezzlement of $55 million, Kommersant daily writes on Thursday.

According to the newspaper, the investigation into the case has been completed.

Gitelson was detained in Austria last April. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office sent an extradition request, saying that Gitelson was sentenced to 5 years in prison in absentia, for defrauding a lawmakerout of 500 million rubles (app. $14 million). In December, Gitelson was extradited from Austria.

According to the St. Petersburg Investigative Department, Alexander Gitelson, former owner of the Bank of East European Finance Corporation (EEFC Bank, St. Petersburg) and former board chairman of Inkasbank, and former Inkasbank CEO Tatyana Lebedeva are suspected of embezzling over 1.9 billion rubles ($55 million), which the finance committee of the Leningrad Region government deposited in Inkasbank in the period from May 2006 to May 2007.