MOSCOW, September 22 (RAPSI) - Russian billionaire Sergei Pugachev, currently wanted beneficiary of the bankrupt International Industrial Bank, has filed a lawsuit against Russia for $12 billion with an international commercial court, according to a statement released today.

Reuters reported earlier that Pugachev was suing Russia for $10 billion at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.

“Over the past several years, Russia has been attacking me, my family and my investments on many sides. I refuse to be intimidated by Russia’s methods,” Pugachev said.

According to the statement, Russia’s ministers of economy, finance, justice and foreign affairs as well as the president will be officially notified of the lawsuit.

Last April, the Moscow Commercial Court imposed joint liability on Pugachev and three other ex-managers of International Industrial Bank in a bankruptcy lawsuit. The court found the defendants guilty of activity that led to the bankruptcy of the loan organization – specifically, of issuing knowingly unrecoverable loans and siphoning off current assets.

The Russian Deposit Insurance Agency is accusing Pugachev of embezzling billions of dollars from International Industrial Bank. Investigators qualified the action of the then unidentified managers of the bank as unlawful action during bankruptcy proceedings and premediated bankruptcy. Formally, Pugachev is not one of the bank’s owners. However, he is considered to be the bank’s actual beneficiary. He was first put on the federal and then the international wanted list.