On October 7, 2009, the Supreme Court of Italy is to consider the Russian authorities’ appeal against the Italian court’s refusal to extradite Bank24.ru’s former BOD member Alexei Kalinichenko. The former executive is suspected of large-scale fraud, says the spokesperson for Ural Federal District’s division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The extradition request was placed with the Italian authorities by the Russian Federation General Prosecutor’s Office international legal cooperation department on July 3, 2008. By then, Kalinichenko had already been detained by the Italian Interpol during a special operation on June 4, 2008. The Italian court refused to extradite the suspect, so its ruling was contested through the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Bank24.ru was acquired by Life Group’s Probusinessbank in the fall of 2008. In addition to this bank, Life Group also owns Yekaterinburg-based VUZ-Bank.