Swiss order arrest of Kremlin aide for money-laundering

Ulhas Joglekar ulhasj at bom4.vsnl.net.in
Wed Feb 2 05:07:26 PST 2000


29 January 2000

Swiss order arrest of Kremlin aide for money-laundering DAVOS: Swiss authorities investigating a Russian money-laundering affair have issued an international arrest warrant for former top Kremlin official Pavel Borodin, a Swiss magistrate said. The arrest warrant for Borodin, who was a key aide to Boris Yeltsin before the former Russian president resigned last month unexpectedly, has already been sent to the Interpol police network, the magistrate told Reuters Thursday, declining to be named. The bold and diplomatically unusual Swiss move is the first of its kind against a serving Russian politician and an unprecedented accusation aimed at an official who was at the heart of the Kremlin. The charges are part of an investigation by Geneva's judicial authorities into alleged kickbacks paid to Russian government officials by Swiss-based construction firm Mabetex. The Kremlin and Mabetex have denied any wrongdoing in the affair, in which a number of Swiss accounts have been frozen. In Moscow, Borodin's spokesman said the Kremlin's ex-property chief had had no word from Swiss authorities about an arrest warrant for him and knew about it only from media reports. The Swiss magistrate told Reuters that international arrest warrants were likely to be issued for two more suspects soon. The arrest warrant is the first to be issued in the Swiss investigation into the multi-million-dollar web of Russian financial dealings and alleged corruption. It underscores investigators' suspicions that Switzerland may have played a central role in capital flight and potentially high-level corruption and embezzlement in Russia. The Swiss move could have political implications for Russsia as well as the US, where the suspected diversion of massive western aid to Moscow has been a key issue in the presidential primaries ahead of November elections. The Swiss magistrate said Geneva's chief prosecutor Bernard Bertossa issued the warrant recently for Borodin, who presided over the kremlin's vast property empire of hotels, resorts, dachas and real estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars. ``I can confirm that the chief prosecutor, Bertossa, has issued an international arrest warrant for Borodin,'' said the magistrate. ``The warrant is for money-laundering.'' swiss federal police sources said that once such a warrant is issued, the suspect could not travel to the West without running the risk of being arrested and extradited to SWitzerland. Russia's acting president Vladimir Putin ousted Borodin from the Kremlin administration in a reshuffle earlier this month. Putin demoted Borodin to a figurehead position in the Russian government as state secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union that Moscow established with the former Soviet republic. Swiss prosecutors have accused him of taking bribes from the Swiss company Mabetex in return for giving the firm lucrative contracts to renovate government buildings, including the Kremlin, charges Borodin has previously denied. Separately, Swiss authorities are also investigating Swiss connections in an alleged money-laundering scandal involving the Bank of New York. They are assisting US investigators in the affair, in which two people have already been indicted in the US. (Reuters) For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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