SIHANOUKVILLE (Cambodia), October 4 (RIA Novosti) – Fugitive Russian real estate tycoon Sergei Polonsky, who currently lives on his own island in Cambodia, said Friday that he was thinking about returning to Moscow to clear his name.
Polonsky, the former head of developer Mirax Group, has been charged in absentia with involvement in embezzling more than 5.7 billion rubles ($175 million) from an upmarket residential project in Moscow.
He told RIA Novosti on Friday that he had told his lawyers to draft compensation deals amounting to $12 million for those individuals who purportedly lost money in the project.
The Interior Ministry has said that more than 80 participants in the project lost money directly because of Polonsky’s actions.
“I had already constructed 20 buildings, and problems emerged only with this particular one,” Polonsky told RIA Novosti. “I will finish the construction of this building, and all the interest holders will get their apartments. In the meantime, I will compensate them for their losses.”
The tycoon said he intended to return to Moscow from Cambodia, where he was granted citizenship last month after Cambodian judges cleared him of liability in an alleged attack on locals last year.
Polonsky and two Russian friends were arrested in Cambodia in December for allegedly attacking the six-man crew of a boat ferrying them from a Cambodian island to the resort city of Sihanoukville. Polonsky was released on bail, and his two friends were also released and cleared of charges.