MOSCOW, August 31 (RAPSI) – The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has upheld the bankruptcy of Vneshprombank’s ex-president Larisa Markus, sentenced to 8.5 years in a penal colony for embezzling 113.5 billion rubles (about $2 billion), the court’s database reads on Thursday.

The court has dismissed an appeal of the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) acting on behalf of Vneshprombank. Markus was declared bankrupt in April.

On August 15, the Moscow City Court reduced the sentence given to Markus from 9 to 8.5 years. 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.