MOSCOW, October 9 (RAPSI) - Moscow Commercial Court has speedily dismissed on Thursday a third-party claim filed by Russia's Investigative Committee in Bashneft case seeking over 189 billion rubles (about $4.7 billion) from AFK Sistema’s structures.
The Prosecutor General's Office raised its objections to the intervention of the Investigative Committee in the case. AFK Sistema and its subsidiary Sistema-Invest also opposed to the intervention.
Oil company Bashneft was privatized in 2009. It was controlled by the government of Russia’s Bashkortostan region until 2003, when a major stake was sold to companies affiliated with Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan, Murtaza Rakhimov.
In 2009, Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema gained control of the company. In April 2014, investigators opened a criminal case linked to deals with Bashneft shares in 2002 to 2009.
Ural Rakhimov and Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the board chairman and largest beneficiary of AFK Sistema, were implicated in the sale of Bashneft stock in 2009.
Rakhimov was charged in absentia with embezzlement during the transaction and money laundering. He was put on the international wanted list.
Yevtushenkov was charged with money laundering and placed under house arrest in September.
Moscow's Basmanny District Court prohibited AFK Sistema in August from selling its Bashneft shares. Later the Moscow City Court upheld the ruling.
On September 25, Moscow Commercial Court seized Bashneft shares owned by AFK Sistema and Sistema-Invest.