Former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov says he has been summoned to testify in a probe of a city bank he founded that allegedly issued a fraudulent loan to his wife’s debt-ridden firm.
Luzhkov was summoned to appear for questioning today.
He told Interfax news agency he will appear before the investigator as soon as he returns to Russia.
Luzhkov and his wife, Yelena Baturina, have spent most of their time abroad since the mayor was ousted in September 2010.
The Bank of Moscow that Luzhkov founded was raided within months of the mayor’s replacement.
Its executives now stand accused of using city budget money in 2009 to issue a $420 million loan to a shell company that ended up buying a property at an inflated price from Baturina’s construction business.
compiled from agency reports