MOSCOW, September 19 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has upheld extension of house arrest for ex-official of Russia’s Culture Ministry and current director of the Russian Academic Youth Theater Sophia Apfelbaum charged with embezzlement until October 19, the press-service of the court has told RAPSI.

An appeal against the Basmanny District Court’s ruling of August 31 was dismissed.

Apfelbaum is a defendant in a criminal case involving the Gogol Center theater director Kirill Serebrennikov.

Serebrennikov was arrested in late August 2017 and then placed under house arrest. In early November, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court seized assets belonging to Serebrennikov including apartment, car, and money in the amount of more than 360,000 rubles ($6,000), over €60,000, and $4,000.

Investigators believe that he was an organizer of the budget money embezzlement. He allegedly created Seventh Studio stage company to actualize the Platforma project for promotion of art and invited other defendants into the organization. The defendant pleaded not guilty.

Investigators claim that ex-head of Seventh Studio stage company Yury Itin, ex-general producer Alexey Malobrodsky and former Seventh Studio chief accountant Nina Maslyayeva were falsifying data for the Platforma project’s plans in 2011-2014 on the theater director’s request. This data was provided to the Ministry of Culture as the rationale for financing from the state budget.

Earlier, Maslyayeva testified against Serebrennikov. She said that Serebrennikov, Malobrodsky and Itin organized embezzlement of money allocated for a cultural event. Serebrennikov and Malobrodsky cashed the money with the assistance of Maslyayeva. The woman also said that she entered falsified data in financial reports.

Apfelbaum has been also arrested and put under house arrest on embezzlement charges. According to investigators, from 2011 to 2014, she signed contracts on state grants in the amount of more than 214 million rubles ($3.7 million) with Serebrennikov’s Seventh Studio on behalf of the Russian Culture Ministry, and provided further agreement of received reporting documents, which contained overstated information on quantity and cost of the held events. Thus, she has abetted embezzlement of about 68 million rubles ($1.2 million) by Serebrennikov and his accomplices, investigators claim.

The former official admitted that she controlled the movement of cash but denied involvement in embezzlement.

One more defendant, producer Yekaterina Voronova, has been arrested in absentia and put on the international wanted list.