MOSCOW, 29 August (RAPSI) – Alexander Didenko, former president of the International Industrial Bank (Mezhprombank), has been charged with embezzling over 28 billion rubles (over $771 million), official Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said Friday.

Dmitry Amunts, deputy head of the Federal Agency for Tourism, stands accused of aiding and abetting Didenko.

According to investigators, Didenko and Amunts were members of a criminal group that embezzled the funds from Mezhprombank in 2008-2009.

Didenko and Amunts were detained as a criminal investigation into the intentional bankruptcy of the bank owned by Sergei Pugachev was ongoing.

The bank’s operating license was revoked in October 2010 by the Central Bank over failure to comply with the regulator’s requirements or to satisfy creditors’ claims. In November Mezhprombank was declared bankrupt. At that time, the bank owed 31.8 billion rubles to the Central Bank while the creditors’ claims totaled 85 billion rubles ($2.3 billion).

Pugachev was arrested in absentia by a Moscow court and put on the international wanted list in December 2013. The Moscow City Court upheld the decision of the lower court to arrest Pugachev in June.