MOSCOW, November 15 - RAPSI. IDS Borjomi, whose assets were seized by the court as part of a case against exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, has determined to provide evidence that calls into question the legality of the Investigative Committee's actions, Borjomis attorney, Konstantin Rivkin, told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com).
In early October, the Basmanny District Court seized Berezovsky's assets as part of new charges filed against Berezovsky that are based on his alleged investments in Borjomi Center and IDS Borjomi. Previously the Moscow City Court upheld this ruling.
"We have provided irrefutable evidence to the court that Boris Berezovsky is not an IDS Borjomi shareholder and has nothing to do with its activity. We have requested information on the actual owners and last beneficiaries of the seized assets, and Berezovsky is not among them," Rivkin said.
Rivkin said he would file a complaint with the Investigative Committee along with a petition to release the holdings assets.
In early September an Investigative Committee spokesperson said the Borjomi Center and IDS Borjomi offices had been searched. Berezovsky and his late partner, Badri Patarkatsishvili, formerly owned shares in the firms.
The searches were prompted by allegations that Berezovsky could have invested tens of millions of dollars in the companies via trusts, Markin explained. Investigators maintained that these funds included proceeds from criminal activity.
Earlier, the Prosecutor General's Office told RIA Novosti that it was prepared to request that foreign countries attach the assets owned by Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili's relatives.
Berezovsky, who is wanted by Russian authorities on charges of fraud and deception, has been hiding in the United Kingdom since 2000. In 2003, a British court refused to extradite the businessman.
Berezovsky's business partner, a well known Georgian opposition leader and businessman, Patarkatsishvili, died in 2008 in his London home, leaving behind a wife and two daughters.
