TALLINN, October 23 (Itar-Tass) — Estonian prosecutors denied opening a criminal case against former Bank of Moscow president Andrei Borodin.
“A representative of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office was in Estonia with inquiry regarding legal assistance. We do not comment on the contents of the inquiry, but I can confirm that Estonia has not opened a criminal case against Borodin,” Public Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Katrin Lunt told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry’s investigation department said criminal proceedings had been opened against Borodin in Estonia.
“We can confirm that a criminal case against Borodin has been opened in Estonia,” a representative of the investigation department said.
The representative did not rule out that the Estonian police had used materials of the Russian Interior Ministry which is investigating the theft of funds at the Bank of Moscow.
Meanwhile, Borodin’s lawyer said he knew nothing about the new criminal case.
“I can only express my bewilderment,” lawyer Vladimir Krasnov told Tass.
Krasnov, in comments on the arrest of Borodin’s property, did not rule out that it might be linked with the probe into the facts stated in the Anatomy of Protest-2 film.
Borodin is mentioned in the film as an Opposition sponsor, he reminded.
The lawyer noted that the criminal prosecution of his client had been politically-motivated from the beginning. “At present, an opportunity has presented itself to arraign him on suspicion of funding a government overthrow,” he told Echo Moscow radio.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry told Tass the property of former Bank of Moscow executives Andrei Borodin and Dmitry Akulinin had been arrested.
“To reimburse the damage caused by illegal actions by former Bank of Moscow president Andrei Borodin, his real estate – land plots, real estate in unfinished construction projects and expensive cars – have been placed under arrest. His Bank of Moscow shares are under arrest, too.
“The investigators arrested more than 400 million dollars belonging to former Bank of Moscow head Borodin. The money is on accounts at foreign banks in Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg.
“The Interior Ministry’s investigation department, aside from looking into the circumstances of the theft of money belonging to the state and its expatriation /by issuing unsecured loans/, committed by former directors of the above loan institution, is carrying out a range of measures to find the property belonging to the defendants with subsequent placing it under arrest.
“The investigators are closely cooperating with the Finance Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, Interpol, the Fiscal Monitoring Service and law-enforcement bodies of a number of foreign states,” police said.
Former Bank of Moscow president Andrei Borodin and former first vice-president of the same bank Dmitry Akulinin are outside of Russia and are on the list of wanted criminals. The investigators accuse them on several counts of theft, including the theft of 12.45 million roubles belonging to the loan institution.
The investigators said Borodin and Akulinin, abetted by the Kuznetsky Most Development company president and the director general of the Premier Estate, stole the Bank’s money which ended up on the account of INTEKO headed by Yelena Baturina at the time. Baturina and her spouse, former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, were later questioned within the case.