New Charges Against Boris Berezovsky

[december]

Russian prosecutors charge Berezovsky with $13 mln embezzlement


30/ 07/ 2007


MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russian prosecutors have brought a new $13 million embezzlement charge against Boris Berezovsky, a fugitive tycoon residing in the U.K., a defense lawyer said Monday.

"Berezovsky is charged with organizing a criminal group to obtain credit funds of SBS-Agro in 1997 to buy real estate on the Mediterranean coast in France," Andrei Borovkov said.

A Moscow court said Monday Russia's Prosecutor General's Office demanded that fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum in the U.K., be arrested in absentia on new embezzlement charges.

"The Basmanny District Court received a request for the restraint of Boris Berezovsky," Anna Usachyova, the press secretary of the Moscow City Court, said.

Borovkov said that in the new case, a commercial organization obtained loans, and "after a few transactions, money came to companies allegedly controlled by Berezovsky," adding that Berezovsky did not actually have anything to do with them.

Another lawyer, Semyon Aria, said Berezovsky rented a country house in France in 1997. "Later the house was sold to a British company," he said, adding that Berezovsky was not involved.

The Prosecutor General's Office launched criminal proceedings in the case June 29. Aria also said this is the 11th case against his client started in Russia.

Berezovsky is also wanted in Russia on other charges, including fraud and plotting a coup.

Berezovsky could face over 12 years in prison under Russian law if found guilty.

The Prosecutor General's Office said Monday it was seeking the seizure of Berezovsky's property in France.

Russian authorities have repeatedly demanded the businessman's extradition, but British authorities have turned them all down.

In early July, a diplomatic row raised tensions in bilateral relations when Russian prosecutors formally refused to extradite former Kremlin bodyguard-turned-businessman Andrei Lugovoi, accused by the U.K. of poisoning former Russian security officer and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium last November, citing the constitutional provision prohibiting the extradition of Russian nationals.

In response, Britain expelled four Russian diplomats last week and imposed visa restrictions on Russian officials, and Moscow followed suit by expelling British diplomats and promising similar visa restrictions. The countries have also suspended antiterrorism cooperation.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070730/69941522.html

http://img.rian.ru/images/5662/43/56624328.jpg

Boris Berezovsky

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/...htm#BEREZOVSKY


Russia's Jewish Robber Barons

The Jewish oligarchs used cheating, bribery and murder, as they exploited the disintegration of the Soviet system to loot the treasures of the state and to amass plunder amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars.

http://globalfire.tv/nj/05en/politics/robberbarons.htm

[december]

And some new charges against his friends...


Yukos ex-security chief sentenced to life imprisonment

06/ 08/ 2007


MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow City Court sentenced a former Yukos security chief to life imprisonment in a new trial Monday, for organizing murders and attempted murders.

Alexei Pichugin was earlier sentenced to 24 years in prison for a series of killings believed to have been committed on the orders of his bosses at the now bankrupt oil company, but had appealed his sentence, hoping for acquittal.

"The court concluded that Pichugin poses a serious threat to society and sentences him to life in prison," the judge said, announcing the verdict.

"The defendant's guilt has been proven by the investigation and witness accounts," the verdict said.

In August 2006, the Moscow City Court sentenced Pichugin to 24 years in prison for the attempted murder of businessman Andrei Rybin, and the murders of entrepreneur Valentina Korneyeva and the mayor of the Siberian oil town of Neftyugansk, Yury Petukhov.

At the time, Pichugin was already serving a 20-year sentence for two killings and an attempted murder.

Both the Prosecutor General's Office and the defense had appealed the court's verdict. The prosecution requested a life sentence, and the defense team lodged an appeal, calling the sentence illegal and unfounded. In February 2007, Russia's Supreme Court revoked the 24-year sentence against Pichugin and ordered a new trial.

Pichugin denies the charges against him, and his lawyers earlier said their client was put in prison "for one purpose only - to put pressure on Yukos chiefs."

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder of what was once Russia's largest oil producer, and his business partner, Platon Lebedev are serving eight-year prison terms on fraud and tax evasion charges. Leonid Nevzlin, also a business partner of Khodorkovsky and a principal Yukos shareholder, fled the investigation and is now living in Israel.

The Prosecutor General's Office said Monday that Pichugin's conviction was a first step to bringing Nevzlin to justice, and that hearings on his case would take place in absentia.

Pichugin's defense team responded to the Monday verdict with an announcement to appeal the sentence with Russia's Supreme Court.

"The prosecutors simply want to convince everybody that Yukos is nothing but a gang of murderers," defense lawyer Georgy Kaganer said. "They are trying to get to Nevzlin through Pichugin."

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070806/70460355.html

[december]

Berezovsky lawyers appeal latest Russian arrest warrant

10/ 08/ 2007

http://img.rian.ru/images/6366/99/63669935.jpg



MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - Boris Berezovsky's lawyers have challenged the latest warrant issued by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office for his arrest, the fugitive tycoon's defense counsel said Friday.

"Today we have filed an appeal against the arrest warrant for Berezovsky on charges of alleged misappropriation of $13 million from SBS-Agro Bank," Andrei Borovkov said.

A Moscow district court issued Tuesday a sixth warrant "in absentia" for Berezovsky's arrest. Russia's repeated requests for the extradition of Berezovsky, who fled to the U.K. six years ago, have been refused by British authorities.

The latest arrest warrant follows charges that Berezovsky diverted $13 million from SBS-Agro Bank, once a leading Russian bank, and used the money to buy real estate on the Mediterranean coast. In July a Moscow court ordered the seizure of a luxury home allegedly owned by Berezovsky in France.

Explaining the ruling, the court said that if left at large, Berezovsky could continue his criminal activities, harass witnesses or conceal evidence.

The court said the tycoon fled to Britain in 2001 without intending to return.

Judges also dismissed arguments by court-appointed defense attorneys that procedural violations were made during the hearings. Berezovsky has refused to send any of his own defense lawyers to his ongoing trial-in-absentia in Moscow, which he has branded "a farce."

A member of Berezovsky's court-appointed defense team, Semyon Aria, said he expected numerous new charges against the tycoon in the near future based on probes launched by the Prosecutor General's Office, but said he could not specify the charges.

Eleven probes have so far been launched against Berezovksy - who now goes by the name Platon Elenin in the U.K. - and requests for his extradition have been repeatedly sent to London, where he has been granted political asylum and citizenship.

The first warrant for Berezovsky's arrest was issued in 1999 as part of the Aeroflot case. Prosecutors charged the billionaire with embezzling over 214 million rubles ($8.3 million) from the national air carrier and laundering more than 16 million rubles ($620,000). The charges carry up to 10 years in jail.

The outspoken ex-oligarch, once a media magnate with interests in aviation and car manufacturing, announced plans in April to overthrow President Vladimir Putin by force. Berezovsky faces charges of plotting a coup in Russia, for which he faces up to 20 years in prison.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070810/70881477.html

[december]

Berezovsky renews his calls for power change in Russia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38290000/jpg/_38290509_boris_b300_ap.jpg

26/ 08/ 2007


LONDON, August 26 (RIA Novosti) - Fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky renewed his calls for power change in Russia in an interview with a British paper published Sunday.

"Putin's regime is authoritarian. Under the current system, free elections are impossible. Only pressure on the Kremlin will make it possible to re-establish a constitutional form of government," The Sunday Times quoted Berezovsky as saying.

Russia has been seeking the extradition of Berezovsky, who lives in London as a political emigre, since 2002 on charges of money laundering, fraud, and plotting a coup in Russia. However, Moscow's repeated demands for the extradition of the fugitive oligarch have so far been refused.

In an online interview with The Guardian on April 13 Berezovsky announced plans to overthrow President Vladimir Putin by force. However, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service refused to open a criminal case against the exiled tycoon on Moscow's demand, saying he was rather calling for civil disobedience, and, therefore could not be stripped of his refugee status granted in 2001, which would mean his extradition to Russia.

In January 2006, Berezovsky told Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio station that he was "working" to stage a coup in the country.

This time, Berezovsky quoted John Locke, an English philosopher, as saying: "If a government violates the law, overthrowing it is not just a right, but an obligation of responsible members of society."

Berezovsky told The Sunday Times that the philosopher's words applied to the current situation in Russia.

"I am calling for deliberate pressure aimed at reinstating a form of government that would correspond to the letter and the spirit of the Russian Federation constitution," the paper quoted him as saying.

Relations between Russia and Britain have been strained following the death of Alexander Litvinenko, an FSB defector and outspoken Kremlin critic, from poisoning in London last November.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070826/74691371.html

http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/jpg/en-libros390-3.jpg

Paul Klebnikov tells the incredible story of Boris Berezovsky, a one-time Russian car dealer who assembled a huge--and illicit--fortune after the collapse of Communism. "This individual had risen out of nowhere to become the richest businessman in Russia and one of the most powerful individuals in the country," writes Klebnikov, a respected reporter for Forbes. "This is a story of corruption so profound that many readers might have trouble believing it." Yet Godfather of the Kremlin is a careful work of journalism in which Klebnikov documents the business dealings of a man who once bragged to the Financial Times that he and six other men controlled half of the Russian economy and rigged Boris Yeltsin's reelection in 1996.

Godfather of the Kremlin: The Life and Times of Boris Berezovsky: Amazon.ca: Paul Klebnikov: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MWHMKM88L.@@AMEPARAM@@41MWHMKM88L

[december]

Does British press report about him?

[december]

Russian prosecutor says Berezovsky could be extradited to Brazil

27/ 08/ 2007

http://img.rian.ru/images/6918/51/69185140.jpg


MOSCOW, August 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's general prosecutor said Monday that fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky, wanted in Russia, could be extradited from the U.K. to Brazil, where he also faces a criminal probe.

"We hope to persuade Britain to extradite Berezovsky. Brazil has launched a criminal probe against him, and the United Kingdom could consider his extradition to Brazil in the near future," Yury Chaika said.

In July a Brazilian court issued an order for the arrest of Berezovsky, charged in the country with money laundering through an investment group he helped establish, London-based Media Sports Investment, accused of involvement in illegal financial transactions. The Corinthians soccer club in Sao Paolo broke off its partnership with the investment group after the charges were announced.

Berezovsky, who lives as a political exile in Britain, is wanted on embezzlement and sedition charges in Russia. However, British authorities have repeatedly rejected Russian requests for his extradition.

Brazilian Authorities began investigating the financing of Corinthians soccer club shortly after it concluded a partnership agreement with Media Sports Investment and bought several prominent players in 2005. That year, the club won Brazil's national soccer championship.

Brazilian investigators also said Berezovsky could have been involved in the controversial transfer of Carlos Tevez from Corinthians to England's West Ham United last year.

Commenting on accusations, the tycoon said earlier they were part of the Kremlin's politicized campaign against him, and he denied any involvement in the Tevez transfer.

"I am not involved in money laundering and had no part whatsoever in the Carlos Tevez deal," Berezovsky said. "After all, I am an Arsenal fan."

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070827/75156210.html

[december]

Lugovoi says innocent, Berezovsky behind Litvinenko murder

29/ 08/ 2007


MOSCOW, August 29 (RIA Novosti) - Andrei Lugovoi, the U.K.'s key suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, said Wednesday the Crown Prosecution Service has no proof of his guilt and that fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky played a role in the crime.

"There is no evidence, there is no proof. Everything that the Crown Prosecution Service says is a lie, inspired by the British top leadership together with the special services," Lugovoi told British journalists via a video link with Moscow.

He said there is not even any proof that Litvinenko in fact died of radioactive poisoning, adding that the cause of death is still unknown.

Lugovoi said he will not go to Britain as the situation has become too politicized.

"I am not going anywhere because this [murder] case involves big politics," Lugovoi said. "I propose that if British authorities have any proof, they should send it here, to Russia."

The former KGB officer added he was sure that British intelligence was involved in the murder of Litvinenko last November in London.

Lugovoi said that fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky was involved in the crime, as well as in the murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

"It was a thoroughly planned provocation. I believe there was to have been the chain 'Politkovskaya - Litvinenko - Tregubova [journalist Yelena Tregubova]," Lugovoi told journalists.

He said Berezovsky had met with him shortly before Litvinenko's death and that he was preparing an alibi for himself. Lugovoi did not provide any specific evidence against Berezovsky.

He also said other high-profile murders have direct links to Berezovsky.

READ MORE -

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070829/75649246.html

http://img.rian.ru/images/6638/94/66389450.jpg