MOSCOW, June 25 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Monday dismissed an appeal against sentence given to ex-beneficiary of now-defunct Investbank Sergey Mastyugin and ex-board chair of the bank Olga Borgardt for embezzlement of more than 2 billion rubles (about $32 million), RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

The Tagansky District Court of Moscow earlier found Mastyugin and Borgardt guilty of abuse of office and embezzlement and sentenced them to 8 and 6 years in prison respectively. The Moscow City Court therefore upheld the sentence while defense asked to overturn it. According to defense lawyers, the defendants’ guilt was not proven.

Investigators claimed that the defendants transferred 1.5 billion rubles ($30,300) from Investbank to shadow companies. Moreover, Mastyugin instructed Borgardt to remove encumbrance from the stocks that secured loans of 200 and 600 million rubles ($4 mln and $12 mln) provided by Investbank to Dirrektiva company, which was allegedly under his control.

The operation of Investbank, the country's 84th largest bank by assets, was suspended on December 13, 2013. The bank’s license was revoked in 2014.