Hermitage partner Cherkasov views his prosecution as revenge
MOSCOW. May 4 (Interfax) - Ivan Cherkasov, a partner of the Hermitage Capital investment fund, whom the Russian Interior Ministry's Investigative Committee suspects of tax evasion amounting to 2 billion rubles, considers his criminal prosecution an act of revenge by certain investigators.
"The motion on choosing a restrictive measure against me [arrest] is an act of personal revenge on the part of Interior Ministry investigator [Oleg] Silchenko, whom the company for which I work has shown to be directly responsible for the unlawful arrest and death of our lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and for covering up the theft of 5.4 billion rubles from the budget by public officials," Hermitage cited Cherkasov as saying.
Moscow's Tverskoi Court is considering the investigation's motion on arresting Cherkasov on Wednesday. Cherkasov is currently staying in London, where he moved a year before a criminal case was opened against him, when no tax claims were made against the Kameya company he heads, Hermitage said in a statement on Wednesday.
Cherkasov's attorneys insisted that there were absolutely no grounds for his prosecution and for the investigators' motion on his arrest, the statement says.
The attorneys will demand in court that Sergei Magnitsky's testimony be presented, in which the Hermitage lawyer testified before dying at the detention facility that Cherkasov's prosecution had been fabricated, the statement says.
The lawyers will also insist that the hearings be open and will seek the court's permission for their live broadcast from the courtroom.
In commenting on the charges brought against Cherkasov, Hermitage Capital said the Kameya company he heads paid over 3.5 billion rubles to the Russian budget in 2006, including over 3 billion rubles in profit tax at the 24% rate and half a billion rubles more in the dividend tax for its parent company.
Kameya has never been accused of any tax violations, and a final visiting tax inspection confirmed that all taxes for 2006 were paid correctly and in full, Hermitage said.
The case materials include documents on Cherkasov's location at the place of his work in London, where he moved and where he has been working for five years since early 2006, it said.
In line with Article 208 of the Russian Criminal Procedure Code, arrest in absentia is warranted only if a person has been put on the international wanted list, which is possible only if the person's whereabouts is unknown, it said.
The Interior Ministry's unlawful directive on declaring a person wanted and putting him on the international wanted list cannot be used by a court to impose more restrictions on an individual's rights and freedoms by putting him into custody, the statement says.
Hermitage Capital said on Tuesday that Moscow's Tverskoi Court would consider the investigators' motion on arresting Cherkasov in absentia on Wednesday.
