Pyotr Mostovoy faces imprisonment of up to five years for tax evasion.
Photo: Alexander Miridonov
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Privatization Mastermind Investigated for Dummy Ties
Prosecutors of North-East District of Moscow ruled to bring to trial as suspect lawyer Pyotr Mostovoy, co-mastermind of the country's privatization laws and president of Russia's Business Round Table public organization, for evading taxes of 1.2 million rubles. The case is strange, the defense said, hinting on politically-motivated background.
Suspected on count of grand tax evasion by an individual (up to five years in prison), Mostovoy has been questioned already and is likely to face charges in the near term.
It is the housing problem that knocked down one of the masterminds of Russia’s privatization. According to detectives, in 1999 to 2002, Mostovoy rented a cottage in Arkhangelskoe Vacation Estate owned by the president’s affairs department. The three-year rent exceeded 7 million rubles and it was not Mostovoy but some Deiter that paid for accommodation. Officially, Mostovoy wasn’t linked to that company. The detectives reasoned Deiter was a typical dummy company - it was incorporated under the passport of deceased person and provided no accounting reports to tax inspectors.
Deiter used to pay through accounts with Moscow Krasbank. Investigators searched the Krasbank headquarters on March 22, withdrawing documents and seals of some firms allegedly involved in illegal schemes.
As Deiter was acting on behalf of Mostovoy, the material benefit of the latter amounted to 7 million rubles. But Mostovoy didn’t submit any tax return in 1999 to 2002 and, therefore, evaded the income tax of over 1.2 million rubles, investigators concluded.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 23, 2007
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