MOSCOW, August 2 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Ministry of the Interior filed an application seeking to arrest businessman Sergei Polonsky, who is wanted on fraud charges, RIA Novosti reports Friday.

Investigations are currently underway against Polonsky in a number of other countries.

Polonsky was charged in absentia last month as part of a criminal case involving the embezzlement of over 5.7 billion rubles ($176.2 million) from the participants in an up market cooperative residential construction project in Moscow.

Russia’s Interior Ministry said earlier the businessman is hiding from investigators. The Ministry vowed to request the court to issue a warrant for his arrest in absentia. “If the court grants the request, we will put Polonsky on the international wanted list," a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti earlier.

Russia isn’t the only place where Polonsky has recently found himself in a bit of hot water. Polonsky was arrested with two Russian friends in Cambodia in December 2012 for allegedly attacking the six-person crew of a boat. The businessman was released in April, but ordered not to leave the country. In June a British tabloid newspaper reported that he was at a luxury apartment in Israel.

Polonsky’s lawyer said that the Cambodian authorities had allowed Polonsky to travel to Israel for medical treatment.