MOSCOW, August 29 (RAPSI) - The Moscow City Court has upheld the detention of former Rosbank CEO Vladimir Golubkov, who is accused of bribery, RAPSI reported from the courtroom on Thursday.

The court has thus dismissed an appeal filed by the attorneys against the Presnensky District Court's decision to detain Golubkov who earlier was under house arrest.

In May, the police arrested Golubkov, who had headed the bank since 2008, while he was accepting 5 million rubles ($150,694) as part of a larger $1.5 million kickback from the representative of a private company. The executive was allegedly trying to extort the money from Andrei Kovalyov, a former member of the Moscow city legislature and a rock musician, in order to restructure an $80 million debt.

The police believe senior vice-president Tamara Polyanitsyna was also involved in the deal. Both executives face fines of up to 70 times the size of the bribe and prison terms of up to seven years.

Rosbank is a private universal bank within the Societe Generale banking group. It provides banking services to private and corporate clients and has over 600 offices in 340 cities and towns across Russia. It is one of Russia's top 10 banks in terms of assets.