Investigators have issued an international arrest warrant for the former head of Bank of Moscow, the country’s No. 5 bank, and his deputy, a Moscow court said Wednesday.
Former chief executive Andrei Borodin and his deputy Dmitry Akulinin fled Russia for Britain after a dispute with state-controlled over the latter’s attempts to take control of Bank of Moscow.
“An investigator asked the court to arrest Borodin and Akulinin in their absence,” said Yekaterina Ilyina, a spokeswoman for the Tverskoi District Court.
“The accused did not appear at the court hearing and were placed on an international wanted list,” Ilyina said.
However, the Interior Ministry’s Interpol office said Wednesday that no international search warrant existed for both bankers. “We have not received the necessary requests,” an unidentified spokesman said.
Neither Borodin nor Akulinin could be reached for comment. Bank of Moscow declined to help contact them for further comment.
Borodin, also a former shareholder in Bank of Moscow, had resisted attempts by VTB to acquire a control of the bank, which became a target after President Dmitry Medvedev sacked former Mayor Yury Luzhkov last fall.
In March, Borodin sold a stake of about 20 percent in the bank, which he owned together with his ally Lev Alaluyev, to businessman Vitaly Yusufov.
In February, police raided a property company owned by Luzhkov’s wife Yelena Baturina and also raided Bank of Moscow along with the homes of its directors as a part of an investigation into suspected embezzlement and misuse of city funds.
Last month, shareholders appointed Mikhail Kuzovlyov, a former VTB executive, as the bank’s new chief executive. Earlier, a court barred Borodin and Akulinin from making management decisions.
(Reuters, Interfax)