MOSCOW, September 2 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office will demand worldwide seizure of assets belonging to the late Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday, citing the official spokeswoman for the office Marina Gridneva.
“The Russian Prosecutor General's Office will demand the largest possible compensation for the damages caused by Berezovsky and seizure of his property no matter where it could be situated or who is a nominal or straw owner,” the agency quoted Gridneva as having said.
Debtors, including the state-controlled airline Aeroflot, have filed claims totaling 3.2 billion rubles ($85.8 million) on the businessman's estate, according to Russia's Federal Bailiff Service.
Since 2008, the service has returned about 300 million rubles ($8 million) worth of Berezovsky’s debts to his creditors.
Berezovsky fled Russia in 2001 and settled in the UK, sometimes calling himself Platon Elenin. He was found dead by his bodyguard in the bathroom of his house on Mill Lane, Ascot, Berkshire, in March 2013. The results of a post-mortem examination found the cause of death to be consistent with hanging, and a paramedic later said at the inquest that suicide was likely the cause, as there was no evidence indicating otherwise.
In March 2014, the coroner in charge of the inquest said there was no sufficient proof of either a suicide or a murder. Berezovsky reportedly left behind a tangled web of legal and financial disputes and obligations.
The Sunday Times later wrote that Berezovsky’s wealth was estimated at $800 million.
In June, a court in Marseille granted an application filed by Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office and seized Berezovsky’s assets in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes department, Côte d'Azur).