Businessman Polonsky faces fresh charges of stealing over 150 mln rubles from shareholders - Interior Ministry
MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax) - Russian businessman Sergei Polonsky, who is currently in Cambodia, is suspected of stealing more than 150 million rubles from housing construction investors as part of a new criminal investigation opened against him, an Interior Ministry spokesman told Interfax.
"In February 2014, the Investigative Department of the Russian Interior Ministry opened a criminal inquiry into the misappropriation of funds worth over 150 million rubles from investors in the Rublyovskaya Riviera residential complex," he said.
"The investigation has established that in 2008 Sergei Polonsky misappropriated the aforementioned funds through the Mirax Build company, a member of the Mirax Group Corporation, under his control," the spokesman said.
Polonsky, who is already on the international most wanted list, is also suspected of misappropriating shareholders' money during the construction of the Kutuzovskaya Milya residential complex, he said.
Polonsky was imprisoned in Cambodia from December 31, 2012, until April 3, 2013, on the counts of violence against local sailors. He was facing up to three years in prison but the defense team came to an agreement with the sailors, who did not press charges and received compensation from Polonsky. The businessman was released with travel restrictions but his case was not closed.
Russia charged Polonsky in absentia on June 14, 2013 with fraud in the construction of the Kutuzovskaya Milya apartment block. Detectives said Polonsky "stole more than 5.7 billion rubles from the Kutuzovskaya Milya shareholders". More than 80 citizens were recognized as aggrieved parties. The Moscow Tverskoi Court ordered his arrest in absentia and it was announced at the court hearing that Polonsky had been put on the international most wanted list. The Moscow City Court upheld Polonsky's arrest in absentia on September 30.
Polonsky's detention in Cambodia became known on November 11. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office filed an extradition request with the Cambodian law enforcement authorities. The extradition hearing was delayed several times. A Cambodian court considered Russia's extradition request on January 9, 2014, but its decision was not immediately known.
Polonsky's lawyer Alexander Karabanov said on January 13 that the Cambodian court had not found any reasons that would justify his client's extradition to Russia.