ST. PETERSBURG, June 2 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – Stockholder of the bank Severny Credit (North Credit) Alexey Zhelezov, who stands charged with organized embezzlement of 3.3 billion rubles ($48 million) from the customers’ bank accounts and their legalization, has been arrested in absentia,  RAPSI has been told in the United press service of Vologda Region courts.

The defendant is to be placed in detention for 2 months on the date of his arrest in Russia or extradition. He was put on the international wanted list on March 27.

According to case filings, from 2015 to 2017, Zhelezov along with other management of the bank and its employees by executing fictious loan agreements committed several counts of embezzlement totaling to more than 3.3 billion rubles belonging to the credit organization.

Zhelezov was a board chair of the bank Severgasbank from 1994 to 2011. Later, he was a head of Severny Credit until 2015, and then he left the post but remained its shareholder.

After embezzlement the bank was closed and declared bankrupt. The Vologda Region government was its main stockholder.