MOSCOW, October 25 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Monday rejected an appeal filed by ex-Deputy Minister of Education and Sberbank vice-president Marina Rakova against her detention in an embezzlement case, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

She was arrested in October and detained. Earlier, the former official absconded and was put on a wanted list. 

Rakova pleads not guilty.

Also, on October 6, Rakova’s partner Artur Stetsenko, the common-law husband of Rakova and CEO of the Federal State Autonomous Institution "The Fund for New Forms of Education Development was put in detention.

According to investigators, in 2019, Rakova, then Deputy Minister of Education, and Stetsenko were involved in the embezzlement of 50 million rubles ($700,000) from the Fund during the execution of education state contracts.

On September 30, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow ordered detention of ex-fund employees Eugeny Zak and Maxim Inkin as well as the executive director of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences Christina Kryuchkova, who are also involved in the case, for two months.