MOSCOW, November 25 (RAPSI) - The United States offered political asylum to fugitive real estate tycoon Sergei Polonsky, lawyer Alexander Karabanov told journalists on Monday.

Polonsky was arrested in Cambodia on November 11. According to Karabanov, it happened because Polonsky has posted the video on Facebook where a Cambodian police official tried to extort $1 million from him.

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.

A photo and other data on Polonsky has shown up on the Interpol database, after the businessman was put on an international wanted list in October.

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.

In summer, Polonsky tried to apply for Israeli citizenship during his brief stay there after being released from Cambodian prison. In August he left Israel "out of fears for his safety" and returned to his private island in Cambodia.