MOSCOW, November 6 (Itar-Tass) - Russian businessman Sergei Polonsky wants to return to Russia and is ready to conclude a plea bargain with the detectives, Polonsky’s lawyer Aleksander Karabanov told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
“In fact, Polonsky signed a request for plea bargain. We expect the results how the detectives will respond to it. We pin high hopes on it to be taken positively. Polonsky is ready to give testimony in several criminal cases, which the Russian law enforcement agencies had already opened against him. We also demand the measure of restraint should be changed to the businessman to any other penalty not related with deprivation of freedom,” the lawyer said. He also dismissed the previous information that Cambodia is prepared to extradite Polonsky to Russia, because Moscow had put him on the international wanted list through the Interpol.
“I am keeping in contact with Cambodia’s Interpol. We received no orders to extradite Polonsky. We take the information that Cambodia is prepared to extradite the Russian businessman as a provocative act by his rival Nikolai Doroshenko. He lives in Cambodia and he has a conflict with Polonsky,” Karabanov noted. In his words, the Cambodian authorities provided the Russian business tycoon with armed security guards to protect him from Doroshenko’s provocations.
Meanwhile, the lawyer noted that despite the desire Polonsky does not have an opportunity to return to Russia yet.
“Polonsky asks to come back to Russia. He wants very much to return to Russia, but he does not have such an opportunity. The problem is that at the moment of talks over the sale of Potok Company he went on vacations in Cambodia and passed part of his powers to his friend (Aleksey) Alyakin. Meanwhile, a criminal case was opened against Polonsky in Moscow, he is put on the wanted list and faces the charge in absentia without learning his position. Then businessman Nikolai Doroshenko staged a provocation with allegedly captured Cambodian sailors and already at the Cambodian prison Polonsky is forced to strike a deal on unprofitable terms for him,” the lawyer said.
Karabanov added that Doroshenko’s son works in the Cambodian police and he could have easily staged a provocative act against the Russian businessman.
On June 14, the investigation department of the Russian Interior Ministry charged Sergei Polonsky in absentia with fraud in the construction of the Moscow residential district Kutuzovskaya Milya. More than 80 people were found as injured parties from his action. The detectives believe that the company subordinate to Polonsky had received about 5.7 billion roubles (about $176 million) from the depositors, but then froze up the construction, breaking the liabilities in the contracts. After that the top management of the company initiated its deliberate bankruptcy and shutdown.
Two weeks ago the Moscow city court found lawful the absentee arrest of Polonsky. The court panel of appeals turned down an appeal from Polonsky’s lawyer and found the arguments of the prosecutor’s office grounded that Polonsky should be put on international wanted list and should be brought back to Russia for participation in investigative actions.