MOSCOW, January 14 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Monday upheld a ruling extending the seizure of property belonging to ex-Deputy Culture Minister Grigory Pirumov charged with $7 million embezzlement, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Thus, the court upheld the seizure of the defendant’s Moscow real property, land plots and residential houses.

Assets of ex-director of the Culture Ministry’s department of property management and investment policy Boris Mazo, and his former wife, located in Russia and Spain will be remain seized as well.

The defendants are charged with embezzling in conspiracy with his accomplices at least 450 million rubles (about $7 million) allocated for the construction of the Hermitage Museum’s buildings. They have pleaded not guilty.

In October 2017, the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Pirumov to 1.5 years in a penal colony. The court took into consideration the time Pirumov spent in detention and freed him in the courtroom. On December 19, the Moscow City Court toughened punishment for Pirumov. The court imposed a 1-million-ruble (about $15,000) on ex-official and deprived him of the second-class medal of the Order of Merit for the Motherland. However, prosecutors again filed an appeal against Pirumov’s sentence demanding a 5-year prison term for him.

Investigators claimed that between 2012 and 2016 Pirumov, ex-director of the Culture Ministry’s department of property management and investment policy Boris Mazo and several other defendants embezzled over 160 million rubles ($2.4 million) allocated on restoration of the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow, Ivanovsky Convent in Moscow and other objects across Russia.

Pirumov was relieved of his post in December 2016 on an order Chairman of the Russian Government Dmitry Medvedev.