MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. The Moscow Arbitration Court has delayed hearing of a General Prosecutor’s lawsuit against multi-industry holding AFK Sistema to October 30 as the Investigative Committee has asked to change the lawsuit’s grounds, a Prosecutor’s Office representative said Thursday.
“We’ve received a request from the Investigative Committee on amending the lawsuit’s grounds. So we will need time to work on it,” the representative said without disclosing what changes the committee requested.
Another reason for the delay was the comment on the lawsuit itself provided by the respondent’s representatives. The court provided the sides with time to study the comment.
On October 9, the Investigative Committee demanded that Sistema and its affiliate Sistema-Invest pay $4.64 billion to the budget to redeem damage from illegal privatization of Bashneft oil company.
On September 25, the Moscow Arbitration Court arrested Bashneft’s shares owned by Sistema after the General Prosecutor’s Office filed a claim on violations during privatization of the Bashkortostan Republic’s oil and gas assets, demanding Bashneft's return to the government.
On September 16, major Sistema’s shareholder Vladimir Yevtushenkov was put under house arrest on accusations that he was involved in embezzlement during Bashneft privatization. According to earlier reports by the Investigative Committee, Sistema paid $500 million less than agreed with the government of the Bashkortostan republic, during privatization of assets which now are parts of Bashneft.