MOSCOW, January 13 (RAPSI) - Tverskoy District Court of Moscow on Monday seized foreign companies' stock owned by fugitive real estate tycoon Sergei Polonsky, Russian Interior Ministry reports. The ruling came as a restrictive measure in the embezzlement case in which Polonsky was arrested in absentia last year.
A source at the Cambodian Prosecutor General's Office told RIA Novosti on Monday that Russia’s extradition request had been rejected because Polonsky still faces kidnapping charges in the South East Asian country relating to an incident a year ago on board a boat carrying a group of Russians celebrating New Year.
Polonsky spent three months in jail in Cambodia last year on the kidnapping charges. After receiving bail he fled to Israel, where he sought citizenship in a bid to shield himself from extradition to Russia.
Polonsky was then again detained in Cambodia by the local police in November 2013 at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, which seeks the businessman’s extradition. Polonsky was charged in absentia last July as part of a criminal case involving the embezzlement of over 5.7 billion rubles (over $176 million) from the participants in an up-market cooperative residential construction project in central Moscow.
In 2008, Forbes ranked Polonsky Russia's 40th richest man with a $4.35 billion fortune. He headed the Mirax Group, a property development company that went bankrupt during the global economic crisis.