Cristall Former GD Carried to Court on Stretchers
The Tver Court of Moscow ruled yesterday to arrest Alexander Romanov, former general director of Moscow Cristall distillery, on suspected fraud of 220 million rubles. Romanov says the trial was initiated to prevent his return to distillery.
Alexander Romanov was ousted from one of the biggest distilleries in Russia - Cristall - under the BOD resolution of August 12, 2005 “due to financial violation.” The first thing that Romanov’s successor, acting GD of Cristall Igor Kriskovets did was to block the access to distillery for Romanov.
Romanov declared his ouster illegal and pledged to pursue all legal avenues to return to the enterprise. But he will apparently have some troubles in doing it. On August 18, 2005, the southeastern investigators of Moscow brought in a criminal action against Romanov and his deputy Pavel Lobanov, blaming the abuse of authority on them. The accusation was based on the statement of Igor Chuyan, who is the first deputy general director at the state-run Rosspirtprom. Chuyan said Romanov and Lobanov had acquired unsecured notes issued by General Investment Co. and Kvant for the aggregate worth of 220 million rubles. According to Kvant GD Slesarchuk, he hasn’t sold any notes to Cristall.
The case was forwarded to the Main Investigating Department of Moscow on August 26, 2005 and regarded as fraud, notwithstanding that the notes worth 4 million were presented for payment to Afganets Co., which is the notes’ backer and which has never refused to pay, while the remainder matures only by October 1, 2005.
On September 20, 2005, Alexander Romanov, who has recently had a heart attack, was carried on stretchers to Tver Court of Moscow and laid down on the table there. The Court was unable to get down to business for some time, as Romanov was feeling too bad. The physicians, who attended the trial, said he had high blood pressure (160/100) and needed injection, which was allowed at last.
In the end, the judge ruled to arrest Romanov for two months. From the court, he was carried to the temporary isolation ward at 38 Petrovka and will face an indictment tomorrow.
by
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 21, 2005
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