MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. The Investigative Committee has applied for the arrest of former Open Government Affairs Minister Mikhail Abyzov and his accomplices, who are accused of embezzlement of 4 billion rubles (about $62 million at the current exchange rate), the committee’s spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told TASS on Wednesday.

"Today, the investigation has filed a petition to the court for choosing detention as a preventive measure for Mikhail Abyzov and other defendants," she said.

According to her, during his interrogation as a defendant, Abyzov gave brief evidence on the circumstances of the accusation against him, while he did not admit his guilt.

"The accomplices interrogated in the criminal case also deny their guilt, despite the evidence already received by the investigation," Petrenko noted.

The location of one of Abyzov’s accomplices, Sergei Ilyichev, is now being established. By the time of the initiation of the criminal case and the detention of other defendants he was outside of Russia.

According to the investigation, Abyzov, with Nikolai Stepanov, Maxim Rusakov, Galina Fraidenberg, Alexander Pelipasov and Sergei Ilyichev participating in the crime, stole and 4 bln rubles ($62.1 mln) from OJSC Siberian Energy Company and OJSC Regional Power Networks through fraud of their shareholders and channeled money abroad. Actions of individuals involved in the case are qualified under Parts 2 and 3 of Article 210 and Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian penal code ["Creation and participation in criminal community" and "Fraud" - TASS].