Banker Khotin didn't testify against FSB Col. Cherkalin - lawyer
MOSCOW. May 24 (Interfax) - Andrei Khotin, the main shareholder of Yugra Bank, charged with massive embezzlement, has never provided remuneration to law enforcement officers and has never testified against Kirill Cherkalin, an employee of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), arrested in a bribery case, the businessman's lawyer Igor Mardirosov said.
RBC said on Friday that Khotin gave "incriminatory testimony" against Cherkalin. According to the article, "Khotin told the investigators that he had paid Cherkalin as the head of the banking section of the 'K" directorate of the FSB's Economic Security Service for his protection for three years."
"This information is not true and denigrates the honor and dignity of Khotin Alexei Yuryevich. Khotin has never given any remuneration to state officials, employees of the law enforcement agencies and FSB employees in particular, therefore he couldn't give the aforementioned testimony," lawyer Mardirosov said.
Information that the banker testified against Cherkalin and had paid him for his protection "do not have direct confirmation and is a malicious fiction aimed at discrediting Khotin," he said.
Khotin has been under house arrest in case of embezzlement of 7 billion rubles since April 19, 2019.
Col. Kirill Cherkalin, the head of the second directorate of the Directorate of Intelligence Support to the Credit and Financial Industry ("K" Directorate) of the FSB's Economic Security Service, was arrested on April 25. He was charged with accepting a bribe of over than 52 million rubles from "citizen Nazarov." He is also a suspect in the case of fraud in the amount of at least 490 million rubles.