Charges dropped against VEB deputy chairman Ballo in $14 mln fraud case - paper
MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Investigators have dropped charges of complicity in the theft of $14 million against Vnesheconombank (VEB) deputy chairman Anatoly Ballo, as well as Alexander Lagutin, an executive director of VEB subsidiary OJSC Evraziysky and the company's CEO, former deputy energy minister Stanislav Svetlitsky, Kommersant reported on Tuesday.
The Interior Ministry's investigations department, which is conducting the high-profile case, said the decision to change the status of the persons under investigation was made because no direct proof of their guilt has been found, including in regard to where, when and how the crime was committed and the roles of the possible perpetrators, the paper said.
Investigator Dmitry Polishchuk on Monday rescinded the previous decisions charging Ballo, Lagutin and Svetlitsky, the paper said. The whole procedure took about half an hour: the investigator, reading the resolutions, confirmed that the persons in the case would no longer be accused and would become suspects, the paper cited sources as saying.
They said the investigator agreed with the Prosecutor General's Office, which also found no grounds to charge the persons under investigation. Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin signed the relevant order on June 5, the paper said.
Ballo's lawyer Natalya Yudina confirmed that the charges against him have been dropped, the paper said.
Now investigators, "having acknowledged the absence of the most important evidence, must either find it or drop all claims against" her client, Yudina said.
Furthermore, Yudina said the defense plans to petition the court to find that the launch of the criminal case itself was illegal.
Ballo was detained in early March as a suspect in a loan fraud case, but was soon released on bail.
The Interior Ministry's Chief Investigations Department for Moscow launched the investigation against Ballo, Lagutin and Svetlitsky on March 1 under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code, which deals with major fraud.
According to investigators, in September 2008 Ballo and his accomplices stole $14 million (the equivalent of 349.81 million rubles) that was part of a loan that VEB extended to Evraziysky to acquire 100% of shares in Yugvodokanal, a spokesman for the ministry's Moscow department told Interfax at the time.
