Russian billionaire placed under house arrest

September 17, 2014 02:42

A billionaire Russian tycoon was today placed under house arrest in a money-laundering case that has drawn comparisons with a government crackdown on Russia's Yukos oil company more than a decade ago.

The Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative agency, said that Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the head of Sistema holding company, was suspected of involvement in a money-laundering scheme involving oil assets in the province of Bashkiria. Sistema owns the Bashneft oil company, which is based in Bashkiria.

Sistema said in a statement that it considers the charges "totally unfounded" and pledged to fight them.

Russian media reports said in June that Russia's largest oil company, state-controlled Rosneft, considered buying Bashneft. In July, a Moscow court froze Bashneft's stock under a money-laundering probe.

Rosneft is run by Igor Sechin, a powerful longtime assistant of President Vladimir Putin.

Sechin, who has been placed on the US and the EU sanctions lists over the Ukrainian crisis, was seen as the mastermind behind the 2003 arrest of Russia's then-richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Khodorkovsky's Yukos oil company was broken into pieces and sold in dubious auctions with Rosneft seizing the most lucrative elements. Khodorkovsky was pardoned by Putin last December after spending a decade in prison.

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