MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti) – Fugitive ex-Bank of Moscow chief Andrei Borodin will appeal a Moscow court decision that upheld the legality of a freeze of his property, Borodin’s lawyer Mikhail Dolomanov told the Russian legal news agency RAPSI.
The Moscow City Court ruled on Monday that the freeze of two apartments and a land site owned by Borodin in Latvia was legitimate.
“The Moscow City Court’s judgment is at odds with the requirements of Russian Criminal Procedure Code and international law. This judicial act will be appealed by Borodin’s defense,” the lawyer said.
Russia launched a criminal case against Borodin and his former first deputy Dmitry Akulinin in late 2010 on charges of large-scale fraud involving state funds. They are accused of improperly loaning $443 million to shell companies which then transferred the cash to Yelena Baturina, the wife of Moscow ex-mayor Yury Luzhkov and the owner of the construction empire Inteco.
Borodin, whose Bank of Moscow functioned as the capital’s chief investment vehicle under Luzhkov, fled to the United Kingdom in 2011.
Russia’s Interior Ministry reported in October that Russian investigators had put a freeze on assets owned by Borodin and Akulinin, including seizure of $400 million worth of foreign bank assets held by the two and of Borodin’s Bank of Moscow’s shares.
The ministry also reported that investigators had won a court ruling on the arrest of Borodin’s assets in Latvia and also submitted a request for legal aid to the Latvian authorities.
Bank of Moscow, Russia’s fifth largest, had to be bailed out to the tune of $14 billion in July 2011, the biggest rescue of a financial institution in Russian history.
Borodin ranked 117th in the Forbes-2012 List of Russia’s wealthiest people with an estimated fortune of $800 million.
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 home.