A jailed Russian former senator has lost a legal challenge to the confiscation of his assets.

Former Senator Aleksandr Vitalyevich Sabadash was found guilty in 2015 of attempting to embezzle 1.8bn rubles of public funds through a fraudulent VAT refund scheme.

His six-year jail term was upheld by the Moscow City Court.

In January the high court in Douglas granted Russian VTB Bank an injunction to freeze assets linked to Sabadash in the Isle of Man.

These included two Manx-registered corporate jets valued at a total of Euro 9.25m.

But Sabadash challenged the asset-freezing order, his lawyer arguing it was in breach of his human rights as it was based on a judgment in a Russian court which was obtained allegedly without notice and in his absence.

In a statement, Sabadash’s Russian lawyer said that his client was in prison and in ill health.

He added that once his health has improved an appeal would be promptly lodged against the decision of the Russian courts.

But the VTB Bank argued that Sabadash’s rights had not have been violated, as the court was correctly notified of the proceedings.

First Deemster David Doyle dismissed the legal challenge.

He ruled that in his judgment that it was ’fair, just and convenient’ for the January 2018 orders to remain in force pending the determination of any appeal against the Russian judgment.

Sabadash was stripped of his seat in the Russian parliament’s upper house, the Federation Council, in 2006 after being accused of carrying out business activities, which senators are forbidden to do.

He is currently serving a six-year sentence in a prison in St Petersburg.

Granting the injunction to VTB Bank in January, Deemster Doyle said Sabadash appeared to be using company structures in the island in an attempt to shield the ownership of his assets.

Gulfstreams M-BJEP and M-NICE were held by M-BJEP Ltd and M-NICE Ltd whose sole shareholder was AFB Trading One Inc. AFB’s sole shareholder, in turn, was Sabadash.

The court heard that VTB Bank entered into two guarantees with Sabadash in 2010 but he did not honour his obligations under those guarantees.

Judgment was obtained against him in June 2016 in the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow for more than Euro 7 million.

VTB Bank applied for the injunction in the island as part of a move to enforce that judgment.

Manx-registered jets hit the spotlight in the Paradise Papers revelations on BBC television and the Guardian, which focused on Lewis Hamilton’s aircraft.