MOSCOW, June 26 (RAPSI) - Moscow's Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Artur Aleksandrov, a former partner of businessman Sergei Polonsky, on suspicion of failing to pay 119 million rubles ($3.64 million) in taxes, Izvestia newspaper reported on Wednesday. 

A source close to the investigation told the newspaper that in 2007 Aleksandrov, then head of the company Industry Construction, signed contracts with the building developer Prospekt to build a multifunctional office and recreation facility in the Moscow City Business Center.

The investigators found out that Prospekt was controlled by Aleksandrov, and hence the project was actually implemented by Industry Construction. However, 292 million rubles (around $9 million) were transferred to the accounts of Prospekt "for work done and services rendered."

Prospekt actually outsourced its contracts to other companies, signing fictitious subcontracts with them. The investigators believe that the subcontractors were shell companies registered in violation of law as the property of people who had nothing to do with construction.

Aleksandrov is suspected of creating a scheme designed to understate his company's taxable base, as a result of which the federal budget has not received 119 million rubles of VAT and corporate income tax.

According to Izvestia, Industry Construction has been declared bankrupt and is in receivership. Back in 2003, Sergei Polonsky owned 100% of its charter capital, but the asset was later taken over by one of Mirax Group's affiliates. 

Polonsky has found himself embroiled in various criminal dramas lately as well.

On June 14, he was officially charged with embezzling over 5.7 billion rubles ($176.2 million) from participants of the Kutuzovskaya Milya cooperative residential construction project.

His whereabouts are uncertain. He was until recently on bail in Cambodia, where he was arrested together with two Russian friends, Konstantin Baglay and Alexander Karachinsky, on December 30, 2012 for having allegedly attacked the six-person crew of a boat ferrying them from a Cambodian island to Sihanoukville. 

In April 2013 Polonsky was released from the Cambodian prison, but was forbidden from leaving the country.

On June 20, lawyer Diana Tatosova said Polonsky is hoping to become an Israeli national.