LONDON, October 18 - RAPSI. Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky has told the London court that the accusations brought against him in the late 1990s over the Aeroflot airlines case did not peril his business reputation and his partners did not require documenting the aluminum assets acquisitions.
A Moscow court found Berezovsky guilty of stealing 215 million rubles ($7 million by current rate) from Aeroflot in 2007 and sentenced him in absentia to six years in prison.
According to Berezovsky no one wanted the arrangements to be in writing as everybody understood that the case against him was a frame-up.
The Berezovsky vs Abramovich trial began on October 3. Berezovsky claims in his lawsuit that Roman Abramovich intimidated him and his parter Badri Patarkatsishvili into selling a number of assets including a 43-percent stake in Sibneft, a major Russian oil company, and a stake in the Rusal aluminum group for significantly less than their value.
The claimed amount constitutes the difference between the price and the market value and is equal to more than 5 billion pounds.