MOSCOW, April 23 (RAPSI) – Bailiffs are trying to locate the property of State Duma lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov, who has refused to pay 2.728 million rubles (up to $83,000) to the Skolkovo Foundation, Russia’s high-tech development center.

“We’re searching for [Ponomaryov’s] property for purposes of foreclosure,” First Deputy Head of the Federal Bailiff Service Sergei Sazanov told RAPSI on Wednesday. He added that they had not succeeded so far.

Alexander Stebakov, head of the service’s Moscow Department, said the case against Ponomaryov was not unusual and that his debt was less than many others. Under the law on the protection of personal information, bailiffs cannot publish information on banning Ponomaryov from leaving the country due to un-paid debt. But Stebakov said that Ponomaryov’s debt of 2.7 million rubles is sufficient to impose that ban.

The scandal involving Ponomaryov and Skolkovo Foundation was one of the largest last year. Skolkovo filed a lawsuit to force him to repay the 9 million rubles ($300,000) he received for lectures he was contracted to provide.

Skolkovo claimed that only one of the contracted 10 lectures was of any reputable academic value, and that he had not delivered the remaining nine lectures.

Ponomaryov argued that the bulk of the money had been spent on technical expenses and that he had only received a tiny part of the sum.

The Skolkovo Foundation, set up in 2010 by then President Dmitry Medvedev, is the primary agency for the Skolkovo high-tech development hub, which includes a business center, a science and technology institute and a management school.