MOSCOW, May 25 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) – Former head of the Seventh Studio stage company Yury Itin has denied involvement in embezzlement of 200 million rubles (about $3.5 million) allocated for promotion of art, RAPSI reported from the Presnensky District Court of Moscow on Thursday.

Itin denied guilt, an investigator said during the hearing. It was also noted that ex-chief accountant of the Seventh Studio Nina Maslyayeva had testified against Itin.

The Investigative Committee launched a large-scale fraud case earlier this week.

On May 23, police raided the Gogol Center, a popular contemporary theater in Moscow, as part of investigation into the case. Searches have also been conducted in premises of the theater’s artistic director, Kirill Serebrennikov.  Later, he was questioned as a witness in the case.

According to investigators, from 2011 to 2014, unidentified persons from management of the Seventh Studio, a stage company created by Serebrennikov on the basis of his acting and directing course in the Moscow Art Theatre School, embezzled budget funds allocated by the government for development and popularization of art in Russia.