MOSCOW, October 8 (RAPSI) – The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals will hear an appeal of Russia’s Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) against the Moscow Commercial Court’s denial to seize property belonging to nine former governing board members of Probusinessbank, the court ruling reads.

The appeal hearing has been set for November 12. Overall, the assets in question are evaluated as high as 68.5 billion rubles ($1 billion).

The asset seizure motion has been lodged by the DIA as part of a petition for recovery of the bank’s debts from ex-top managers. On August 29, the Moscow court ruled that the claimant had not furnished proof of necessity to adopt seize the defendant’s assets.

According to the DIA, the bank’s bankruptcy examination revealed that Probusinessbank top managers funneled fluid assets out of the organization by lending companies, which did not carry on business consistent with credit levels and did not have their own property and corresponding incomes. Moreover, the bank management did not take measures to prevent the financial organization’s bankruptcy.

In August 2015, the Russian Central Bank revoked the license of Probusinessbank, acting upon the results of an inspection revealing that “the bank’s management carried out large scale operations having markings of assets stripping of the bank.”

In April 2017, ex-chief of the bank’s corporate finances department Nikolay Alekseyev was given 4 years in prison for embezzling 2.4 billion rubles (about $35 million at the current exchange rate) from the bank. Additionally, he was fined 1 million rubles (nearly $15,000). A court also granted a lawsuit filed by Probusinessbank seeking to collect over 2.4 billion rubles from the defendant.

In June 2017, ex-head of Probusinessbank department responsible for interaction with shareholders and subsidiary companies Marina Krylova was sentenced to 3.5 years in a penal colony for assisting with embezzlement of 2.4 billion rubles.

In December, Moscow’s Ostankinsky District Court returned the case against former vice-president of Probusinessbank Vyacheslav Kazantsev and 7 other persons allegedly involved in embezzlement to prosecutors.

According to investigators, from September 2014 to July 2015, the defendants conspired to embezzle funds belonging to Probusinessbank. Accomplices are believed to be unidentified managers and employees of the bank. They allegedly used their office positions to enroll their subordinates, employees of the financial group Life, and heads of sham companies.