All news

Investigators mulling businessman Baturin's arrest

Baturin was detained within the probe into a new criminal case over attempted fraud involving promissory notes of the Inteko company

MOSCOW, November 29 (Itar-Tass) — Investigators are considering arrest of businessman Viktor Baturin, the brother of the former mayor's wife Yelena Baturin, a law-enforcement source told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

Baturin was detained within the probe into a new criminal case over attempted fraud involving promissory notes of the Inteko company.

"The investigators are deciding on whether they should request Baturin's arrest, as the term of his detention is about to expire," the source said.

"The suspect was detained under Article 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code. He has not been charged yet. The investigators suspect him of the commission of the crime envisioned by Article 30, Part 3, and Article 159, Part 4 of Russia's Criminal Code ("attempted fraud").

The case is handled by the Interior Ministry's main investigation department for Moscow.

Baturin has one outstanding conviction. In June 2011, Moscow's Presnya court gave him a three-year suspended sentence for real estate fraud.

The entrepreneur did not challenge the decision acknowledging that the verdict did not evoke any special emotions in him.

"A verdict is a verdict; a severe reprimand on record; nothing to worry about," he said then.

He expressed the opinion that the case against him had been doctored and that it was connected to Yuri Luzhkov's resignation and Yelena Baturina's financial dispute. He did not rule out new criminal cases against him.