MOSCOW, March 22 (RAPSI) – VTB bank has filed a lawsuit seeking to collect 249.2 billion rubles ($4 billion) from Transaero air carrier’s founder Alexander Pleshakov, ex- Board Chairman Olga Pleshakova and Pleshakov’s mother, according to the records of the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region.

In early March, the court dismissed two claims lodged by Transaero’s bankruptcy supervisor Alexey Belokopyt seeking to collect over 20 million rubles (about $300,000) from Transaero ex-top manager Olga Pleshakova. The applicant asked the court to invalidate certain transactions carried out by the former director as the operations in question were made immediately prior to Transaero bankruptcy.

Earlier, Belokopyt demanded to recover about 81 million rubles (about $1.2 million at the current exchange rate) from the company’s ex-founder and his family.

The supervisor asked the court to quash the transactions related to the payment of Transaero dividends in 2013 and return the funds plus interest to the bankruptcy estate charging the money from the former founder of the company, his mother, wife and two daughters.

Transaero found itself unable to pay its debts valued at 250 billion rubles (about $4 billion) in 2015. The government-approved plan of transferring 75% of company’s shares to Aeroflot failed. Its problems resulted in a large number of flight cancels and delays.

In October 2015, Sberbank and Alfa Bank filed bankruptcy petitions against the troubled airline. The Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region initiated bankruptcy procedure against Transaero on December 16.

On September 13, 2017, Transaero was declared bankrupt.