MOSCOW, September 12 - RAPSI. An Austrian company was deemed to be a victim in the case of former State Duma deputy Ashot Yegiazaryan, Investigative Committee's official representative Vladimir Markin told journalists on Tuesday.

"As part of the criminal case regarding Ashot Yegiazaryan, his brother Artyom Yegiazaryan and other individuals guilty of committing crimes stipulated in the article on fraud, the Investigative Committee's main investigative department have declared that Midas Immobilientreuhand und Bautrager GmbH was an injured party in the case," Markin said.

According to investigators, Yegiazaryan and several other individuals stole 75,330 shares from 2008 to 2009 from the Daev Plaza company which were worth $2 million.

Previously, investigators opened two criminal cases on large-scale fraud against former State Duma deputy Yegiazaryan. He was stripped of his immunity as a deputy. According to the Russian investigative authorities, Yegiazaryan and three alleged accomplices also acquired 20 percent of Centurion Alliance amounting to a total of 1.57 billion rubles ($49.77 million) under false pretexts. The cases were united into a single proceeding.

Yegiazaryan has been on the federal wanted list since November 2010 and on the international wanted list since late December. The State Duma consented to his arrest in March 20111.

Yegiazaryan in his turn submitted a defamation lawsuit against U.S. human rights activist Pyotr Zalmayev. Yegiazaryan claimed that he was the victim of a corporate raid initiated by Russian businessmen Suleyman Kerimov and Arkady Rotenberg, as well as ex-Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. Yegiazaryan believes that the conflict stemmed from his participation in the Moskva Hotel renovation project.