MOSCOW, August 15 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova) – The Moscow City Court has reduced the sentence given to Vneshprombank ex-president Larisa Markus for embezzling 113.5 billion rubles (about $2 billion) from 9 to 8.5 years in prison, RAPSI reports from the courtroom on Tuesday.

A 4-year sentence of another defendant, former vice-president of the bank Yekaterina Glushakova, was upheld.

Markus and Glushakova were convicted and sentenced in May. They pleaded guilty. Later, the women were declared bankrupt.

Investigators believe that Markus along with her brother Georgy Bedzhamov, who once co-owned the bank, created an organized crime group to siphon money from the bank. The group including Glushakova allegedly granted loans to sub-companies and did not refund money to Vneshprombank. Allegedly, from May 2009 to December 2015, conspirators managed to embezzle about 114 billion rubles.

Bedzhamov was arrested in absentia and put on the international wanted list.

In March 2016, the Moscow Commercial Court declared Vneshprombank bankrupt. Vneshprombank was one of the top 40 by assets before it lost its license in January of the same year.