Prosecutors say that Boris Berezovsky spent the loan to buy a villa in French Mediterranean.
Photo: Dmitry Lekay
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Russia Issues Sixth Warrant for Berezovsky’s Arrest
// The fierce Kremlin critic faces new charges
Moscow’s Basmanny Court on Tuesday issued a new arrest warrant for Russian self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky. Russian prosecutors are now accusing the fierce Kremlin critic of stealing some $13 million from the SBS-Agro bank. The plea alleges that Sibneft’s former President Evgeny Shvindler is also involved in the crime though prosecutors have not as yet charged him.
The Prosecutor General’s Office passed a decision to charge Boris Berezovsky with laundering $13 million on July 20, one day after British press reported a foiled attempt to murder the Russian businessman. The suspected assassin was deported from the UK.
The plea, signed by the Prosecutor General Office’s top crime investigator Alexander Otvodov, suggests that Mr. Berezovsky set up a criminal group in 1997 to secure a $13 million loan from SBS-Agro. Prosecutors say that he was not going to pay back the money but spent it on “real estate in French Mediterranean.” The investigators believe that the criminal group also included Sibneft’s then president Evgeny Shvindler, who is now a CEO at Millhouse, Swiss lawyer Hans Peter Eni and a French realtor.
The resolution to supplement the Prosecutor General Office’s plea to arrest Mr. Berezovsky was considered by court on Tuesday. Prosecutor Svetlana Zinova was at the Basmanny Court to support the claim before Judge Elena Yarlykova. Mr. Berezovsky’s lawyer Andrey Borovkov told the court that “investigators don’t have a single piece of evidence to prove Berezovsky’s involvement in the crime.” The lawyer said his client had not got a loan with SBS-Agro nor had he signed any documents on its receipt or use. Mr. Borovkov described a suggestion that the Russian bought the Clocher de la Garoupe estate on the Cote d’Azur with this money as a “fantasy”, saying that the defendant was renting the place.
The judge, however, ruled to arrest Boris Berezovsky. “This is the sixth sanction from the Basmanny Court to arrest him,” Mr. Borovkov said. The lawyer noted that prosecutors invited him and his colleagues last month to present new charges against the self-exiled businessman. Prosecutors were considering deal between Samara regional authorities and AvtoVAZ and LogoVAZ car makers which Boris Berezovsky was running in the early 1990s. Mr. Berezovsky’s lawyer went to the prosecutors only to find that investigator Nikolay Atmonyev, who had invited the defenders, was not in his office.
Meanwhile, Millhouse has issued a statement saying that its chief executive Evgeny Shvindler is not charged and had no involvement in the $13 million fraud at SBS-Agro. The Prosecutor General’s Office, however confirmed in an interview with Kommersant that Mr. Shvindler is mentioned in investigators’ papers as a “member of an organized crime group.” Prosecutors say that Mr. Shvindler cannot face the court because he is a U.S. citizen. Meanwhile, investigators say off the record that Russian law does not prohibit charge or arrest a U.S. citizen if the crime was committed in Russia. The investigators suggest that “big brass told not to” arrest Mr. Shvindler. Millhouse would not answer a question whether Evgeny Shvindler visits Russia but said that “everything that was written about him and the case is rubbish.”
Ekaterina Zapodinskaya
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 08, 2007
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