MOSCOW, October 22 (RAPSI) – The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals will hear and appeal of ex-top managers of the Moscow Industrial Bank (MInBank) against an order to pay 198.06 billion rubles (over $2.5 billion at the current exchange rate) in damages on December 2, according to court records.

Earlier, the Moscow Commercial Court granted a claim of the bank represented by Russia’s Central Bank, which had sought to collect the sum from 18 persons earlier controlling this credit organization.The defendants are former MInBank President and Board Chairman Abubakar Arsamakov, Vice-President Adam Arsamakov and 16 other ex-managers. The defendants appealed the ruling.

This June a court of appeals arrested assets owned by the Arsamakovs and MInBank shareholder Malika Abubakirova, thus granting a claim of the Central Bank; moreover, the court introduced certain provisional measures, among them prohibiting registration of properties owned by 15 ex-managers of the bank at total value of 195.6 billion rubles.

The court of appeals reversed a decision of the Moscow Commercial Court of February 18 dismissing the Central Bank claim.

The Central Bank has developed and implements a plan aimed to prevent MInBank bankruptcy.

The Moscow Industrial Bank was registered in November 1990.