Prosecutor General's Office arranges check of lawfulness of launching case on sale of Bashneft shares - lawyer
MOSCOW. Sept 24 (Interfax) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has started checking the lawfulness of launching criminal proceedings in relation to the sale of Bashneft shares, the defense of one of the suspects claims.
"We filed an official complaint. After that the prosecutor's office arranged the check," Ilnur Salimyanov representing the interests of former Bashneft head Ural Rakhimov told Interfax.
He said that a check is arranged automatically after the receipt of a complaint from the claimant. "I don't know when the results will be announced. I think in October," he said.
The case over the illegal sale of Bashneft shares against AFK Sistema chief Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Bashneft's ex-chief Ural Rakhimov and businessman Levon Airapetyan has been investigated since April 2014.
Media outlets learned about the inquiry in July after Airapetyan was arrested by law enforcement authorities.
It was reported that as part of the inquiry the Basmanny Court of Moscow imposed a freeze order on AFK Sistema's shareholdings in Bashneft, Ufaorgsintez and Bashkirskaya Elektrosetevaya Kompaniya.
On August 27 Moscow City Court rejected an appeal against the freeze order, and investigator Alexei Veselye announced that he had launched another criminal inquiry on August 26 under Article 174 of the Russian Criminal Code (legalization) into the sale of shares in Bashkortostan's fuel and energy firms to Sistema. "I opened a criminal case over the legalization of assets. The investigation is to find out who made the decision on share acquisition," the investigator said. He said the shares were bought at a "discount" of $500 million. AFK bought the shares through four funds thought to be close to the then leader of Bashkortostan, Murtaza Rakhimov, and his son Ural: Agidel-Invest, Ural-Invest, Inzer-Invest and Yuryuzan-Invest.
Sistema finalized the asset acquisition deal in April 2009. The initial price of the deal was $2.5 billion, of which $2 billion were paid by AFK straight away and the remaining $500 million were to be paid in a 14-months. However, in May 2009 AFK signed agreements in addition to those previously signed over the sale and purchase of shares in Bashkortostan's fuel and energy companies, with the total price of the deal now set at $2 billion. Thus, AFK agreed with the seller not to pay the extra $500 million for the shares.
On September 16, spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said AFK Sistema's main owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov was charged with money laundering (Article 174 part four of the Russian Criminal Code). The main investigative department of the Investigative Committee is investigating a case of misappropriation of shares of companies belonging to the fuel and energy sector of Bashkortostan and their laundering.
Following an investigator request, the court placed Yevtushenkov under house arrest until November 16.