Estonia has informed Russia that it is bringing criminal proceedings against ex-Bank of Moscow chief Andrei Borodin, a Russian law enforcement source said on Tuesday.
The case was opened in September following two requests from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, the source said, adding that a group from the Prosecutor General’s Office was currently in Estonia.
Earlier on Tuesday the Russian Interior Ministry said investigators had impounded $400 million worth of foreign bank assets held by Borodin and his former first deputy Dmitry Akulinin.
However, Borodin’s lawyer called this information inaccurate and outdated.
A criminal case was launched against Borodin and Akulinin in late 2010 on charges of fraud involving state funds. They are accused of improperly loaning $443 million to shell companies which then transferred the cash to Yelena Baturina, Moscow’s ex-mayor Yury Luzhkov’s wife who owned the construction empire Inteco.
Borodin, who headed the Bank of Moscow, which functioned as the capital’s chief investment vehicle under Luzhkov, fled to the United Kingdom in 2011.
The Sunday Times reported in August this year that Borodin paid 140 million pounds ($219 million) for an estate near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire last summer, making the property Britain’s most expensive house.