Leonid Rozhetskin was added to the international wanted list and arrested in absentia.
Photo: Valery Levitin
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Prosecutors Communicate with MegaFon
Moscow prosecutors stepped into the battle of Alfa Group and IPOC for the blocking stake in Russia’s third cellular giant MegaFon. Under the motion of prosecutors, Zamoskvoretsky Court sustained the absentee arrest of Leonid Rozhetskin. Added to the world wanted list on swindle charges, Rozhetskin blames the chase on Russia’s IT and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman.
Zamoskvoretsky District Court didn’t wait for Leonid Rozhetskin’s lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov to return from abroad and upheld the prosecutors’ motion for the absentee arrest of Rozhetskin. The duty lawyer Iya Dergacheva stood for Rozhetskin in court. Dergacheva said she was “just asked to take part in the arrest case.”
Moscow prosecutors initiated the criminal case against LV Finance chief Leonid Rozhetskin in December 2004 by application of IPOC President Michael North. North said that, in August 2003, Alfa Group bought out from Rozhetskin 25.1 percent in MegaFon by passing two optional agreements of IPOC and Rozhetskin, which yielded $40 million to the latter.
As a result, LV Finance chief faced charges of grand swindle (Clause 159 of the Criminal Code), which implies a sentence of up to ten years. Nevertheless, no detention award was passed then and Rozhetskin left for the United States in March 2005.
IPOC has been challenging the sale of the blocking stake in MegaFon in the arbitration courts of Russia and worldwide since 2003, always failing in the suits.
According to IPOC’s enemies, one of the arbitration trials under the suit of LV Finance vs. IPOC held in Zurich in May showed that IPOC’s beneficiary was Russia’s IT and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman. So, once Zamoskvoretsky Court passed its award, Rozhetskin lodged an honor protection suit against the minister in one of the courts of New York.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 12, 2006
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