MOSCOW, August 24 (RAPSI) – The Smolensk Regional Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling ordering the seizure of 508 million rubles ($7.8 million) owned by Russian IKEA subsidiary "IKEA Mos" as a part of its dispute with businessman Konstantin Ponomarev, who delivered electrical generators to the company, RAPSI learnt in the court on Wednesday.

According to the court, the case is connected with "IKEA Mos" refusal to perform a supplemental agreement concluded with the businessman.

The court thus upheld a decision of the Krasninsky District Court in the Smolensk Region on seizure of monetary assets belonging to "IKEA Mos" and prohibition on the planned company reorganization.

IKEA attempted to appeal the Krasninsky court’s ruling in the Supreme Court’s Justice Department, Qualification Board of judges, Smolensk Regional Court claiming that the company had not received  summons and the court imitated acknowledgement of receipt of letters of convocation by the company.

However, during the searches conducted as a part of a criminal case launched against the Swedish company investigators found out that IKEA managers had prepared an instruction prohibiting employees from receiving correspondence, in particular from the Krasninsky court.

In April, media reported that a criminal case had been opened against top managers of the Swedish concern IKEA on suspicion of large scale fraud. According to police, IKEA managers used forged documents to acquire title to a land plot with an area of more than 16 ha belonging to Collective agricultural enterprise “Khimki” (formerly called Collective farm “Way to Communism”). IKEA allegedly entered into conspiracy with a head of Khimki town to commit the crime.

IKEA is one of the world's largest retail networks selling furniture and household items. It operates 14 IKEA outlets in Russia. The first IKEA store opened in Russia in 2000. The projected investments to commission Mega trade and entertainment complexes amount to $120-$300 million on average.