The Moscow City Court on Wednesday recognized as legal the arrest in absentia of State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, accused of complicity in the embezzlement of $750,000 from the Skolkovo Foundation, Interfax reported .

The appellate instance rejected the complaint in which Ponomarev’s defense asked the Moscow City Court to cancel the arrest of the deputy in absentia as an excessive preventive measure.

Ponomarev's lawyers insisted in court that the deputy is not hiding from the investigation, is ready to give the necessary explanations and has already paid off all claims of the Skolkovo Foundation. The Gagarinsky Court of Moscow partially satisfied these claims for a total amount of 2.7 million rubles.

A representative of the Prosecutor General's Office demanded that the decision of the Basmany Court on Ponomarev's arrest in absentia be left unchanged.

On July 17, the Basmanny Court authorized the arrest of a deputy in absentia in an embezzlement case. Ponomarev was charged in absentia at the end of June and he was put on the international wanted list.

In March, the Investigative Committee announced that Ponomarev is suspected of aiding the former senior vice president for development and commercialization of the non-profit organization Skolkovo Foundation, Alexey Beltyukov, in embezzling the foundation’s funds in the amount of more than 22 million rubles.

According to investigators, in 2010, Alexey Beltyukov, then holding the post of senior vice president for development and commercialization of the non-profit organization Skolkovo Foundation, entered into an agreement to carry out research work worth $750,000 with State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev. Later, Beltyukov and Ponomarev entered into an additional agreement to the contract, according to which the cost of the contract was reduced to $450,000. The investigation believes that this agreement, which “virtually abolished the system of stage-by-stage reports,” created the conditions for the theft of Skolkovo funds. Subsequently, another agreement was concluded with Ponomarev to conduct a course of lectures and seminars. According to the Investigative Committee, instead of lectures costing $30,000 each, Ponomarev gave “short blitz speeches from 3 to 18 minutes, and at events that were in no way related to the stated topic.” Beltyukov is accused of embezzling funds from the Skolkovo Foundation in the amount of more than 22 million rubles.

In April, the State Duma stripped Ponomarev of parliamentary immunity. In early June, a criminal case was opened against a parliamentarian located in the United States. He was charged with aiding and abetting embezzlement at the end of June. The Investigative Committee announced plans to initiate an international search for the deputy with subsequent extradition.

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

The Moscow City Court recognized the arrest of Ponomarev in absentia as legal