MOSCOW, October 7 (RAPSI) - The Thirteenth Commercial Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s ruling to include a 1.7 billion rubles ($27.2 million) debt of former CEO of JFC Group Vladimir Kekhman to Promsvyazbank on the list of creditors' claims, according to court records.

In September, the court upheld Kekhman’s debt to UniCredit Bank estimated at 434.3 million rubles ($6.9 million).

Promsvyazbank and UniCreditBank filed applications with the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region seeking recovery of debt from Kekhman in March.

Kekhman was declared bankrupt by court upon the application of Sberbank on July 28. Kekhman has filed an appeal against the ruling. This appeal will be considered on October 24.

Moreover, on July 21, a court in St. Petersburg dismissed a petition lodged Kekhman seeking the recognition of London’s High Court’s judgment declaring him bankrupt. Kekhman’s financial executive Mikhail Bologov, Russia’s Federal Tax Service, Sberbank, Rosbank, Promsvyazbank, Raiffeisenbank, UniCredit Bank, Aquamarine Company and Pulkovo Trade Company are named as interested parties in the dispute.

A Kekhman’s representative claimed during the bankruptcy hearings that the former head of JFC had no obligations before Sberbank because he was already been declared bankrupt by The High Court of Justice of England in 2012 and Sberbank received its share from sales of Kekhman’s property. A Sberbank’s representative, on the other hand, claimed that the bank was not involved in the process and did not receive any compensation. According to the Sberbank’s representative, the bank had rulings of several Russian courts on debt recovery from Kekhman.

Nevertheless, the representative of Kekhman insisted that the ruling of The High Court of Justice of England had been recognized by Sberbank and was to be complied with in Russia.

In its ruling, the court pointed out that in the absence of international treaties, entered into by the Russian Federation, decisions on bankruptcies taken in foreign jurisdictions were to be recognized in Russia only on the reciprocity basis unless otherwise stipulated by federal laws. At present, the court stressed, the Russian Federation was not a party in any international treaty on bankruptcy issues.