MOSCOW, February 21 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling returning an embezzlement case against former head of the state-owned technology corporation Rusnano, Leonid Melamed, to prosecutors, the court’s press-service has told RAPSI.

The court has therefore dismissed an appeal of prosecutors against the December 8 ruling of Moscow’s Cheremushkinsky District Court.

On December 8, the court proposed to return the case on its own volition. Lawyer Ruslan Kozhura said that the initiative was supported by defense of Melamed and another ex-manager of the corporation, Svyatoslav Ponurov, also charged with embezzlement. According to Kozhura, the court noted that currently presented evidence does not reveal the nature of charges.

Earlier, Anatoly Chubais, Chairman of the Executive Board of Rusnano, testified in the case.

The Investigative Committee claims that between 2007 and 2009, Melamed along with ex- corporation managers Andrey Malyshev and Svyatoslav Ponurov illegally transferred over 220 million rubles ($3.7 million at the current exchange rate) from Rusnano to Alemar Co. controlled by Melamed. The defendants pled not guilty.

According to the information available, the case was opened after the check of the corporation’s finance indicators by the Audit Chamber. The defendants have been charged with large-scale embezzlement of public funds.