Court upholds absentia arrest of banker Akulinin
MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has upheld the absentia arrest of former first vice-president of the Bank of Moscow Dmitry Akulinin.
The judge declined the appeal of the Akulinin defense and upheld the ruling of the Tverskoy District Court.
The lawyer appealed the ruling as illegal and unfounded. In turn, the prosecutor asked the court to uphold it.
The Moscow City Court panel defined the arrest as lawful.
The court made a similar decision on the appeal of the defense of ex-president of the Bank of Moscow Andrei Borodin on May 25.
In early May, Moscow's Tverskoy Court issued warrants for Borodin and Akulinin, and they were placed on an international wanted list, as both of them were outside Russia.
Borodin and Akulinin stand accused of assisting the extension of a loan against the pledge of assets whose liquidity was questionable. The approximately 13 billion ruble loan was intended for the Premier Estate company.
The money gained was subsequently transferred to Inteco head Yelena Baturina's personal bank account, the Interior Ministry said earlier.
In February 2011, Borodin was questioned within the framework of the Premier Estate loan case. According to unofficial sources, investigators conducted searches at Borodin's dacha, as well as at commercial organizations, including the Inteco company and Bank of Moscow.
Borodin had continuously led the Bank of Moscow since its founding in 1995. In early 2011, VTB acquired the Moscow government's stake in the bank and after a few months of a standoff with the old management, nominated its candidate, Mikhail Kuzovlev, for bank president.
Borodin was removed from office by a court ruling even before a shareholders' meeting, which decided on this appointment.
