MOSCOW, September 22 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has dismissed the motion for a closed hearing on the seizure of an office building in Moscow that belongs to Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky’s firm, RAPSI reports from the courtroom Monday.

The court was asked to ban the press from the trial, allegedly because journalists used information acquired there to undermine the business reputation of Elite Holding. The judge has ruled that the hearing should be held in public because the case materials do not contain classified information.

Kolomoisky and his partners in the Privat group hold a controlling interest in the building via Cyprus companies and a Moscow-based business firm, Elite Holding.

Elite Holding’s office building on Povarskaya Street was seized at the request of investigators.

“We have established that a Moscow-based company co-founded by Kolomoisky, Elite Holding, owns an office building in Moscow and that Kolomoisky could be using lease revenue to finance criminal operations in southeast Ukraine,” Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

A criminal case has been opened in Russia against Kolomoisky and Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov under Russian articles on “the masterminding of murder, the use of prohibited methods and means of warfare, abduction, and the hindering of the legitimate activities of journalists.”

It is also rumored that Kolomoisky is financing the ultra-nationalist Right Sector and several armed groups that are taking part in military operations in Donbas.

Ihor Kolomoisky, whose personal wealth is estimated by Forbes at $1.8 billion, is the fourth richest man in Ukraine.

Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ordered the arrest of Kolomoisky in absentia on July 2. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia has asked Interpol to place the oligarch on the international wanted list.