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Court to consider arrest of businessman Baturin

Charges of attempted fraud were brought against Baturin on Tuesday

MOSCOW, November 30 (Itar-Tass) — Businessman Viktor Baturin, accused of attempted fraud, has been convoyed to Moscow's Tverskoi court which is to decide on the measure of restraint for him, the Court's spokeswoman Yekaterina Ilyina told Itar-Tass.

Charges of attempted fraud were brought against Baturin on Tuesday. His lawyer Igor Shabanov earlier told Itar-Tass that his client insisted on his innocence.

At the Wednesday hearing, Baturin reiterated his innocence. "I do not admit any guilt. I'm not guilty of anything; These are attempts to slander me," he stated.

Baturin said INTEKO vice-president Oleg Soloshchansky is trying to slander him and that forging a company's promissory note is impossible in principle, as each is issued in a single copy.

According to the investigator, on November 28, Baturin presented a false promissory note of the INTEKO company at its office in Sadovaya-Spasskaya Street, 28. It was worth 10.8 million roubles, and Baturin demanded immediate payment.

INTEKO personnel had misgivings regarding the authenticity of the promissory note. They called police, who detained Viktor Baturin.

"One can conclude from the defendant's testimony that he was aware that the security was not authentic. In addition, he stated he had signed this promissory note at direct order of INTEKO president, his sister Yelena Baturina, and that there were several such promissory notes in his office," the Interior Ministry's main office reported.

In June 2011, Moscow's Presnya court gave Baturin 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.

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