Gutseriev escaped to Turkey from Minsk :: Charter'97 :: News

Former head of the Rusneft Mikhail Gutseriev who had been announced for international search was discovered in Turkey , the RIA Novosty informs referring to the Prosecutor General’s office representative. He also specified that the businessman was announced for international search only after the fact of his departure had been proved.

The Russian Embassy to Turkey reported that they were unaware of the Mikhail Gutseriev’s location in the country, the Lenta.ru informs.

Previously the information appeared of the businessman’s staying in London.

On Wednesday the Moscow City Court admitted the arrest of the former head of the Rusneft in absentia to being legal. Thus the court turned down the businessman lawyers’ appeal of the corresponding judgment of the Tverskoy court of Moscow. The arrest warrant was given 28 August after the evidences of the businessman leaving the country being submitted by the investigators. Thus he breached the previous non- departure signed statement.

Mikhail Gutseriev faces charges of tax evasion and illegal entrepreneurship. The businessman himself considered the brought charges as “funny” and “beyond even superfluous criticism”. He quitted the post of the head of the Rusneft at the end of July.

The businessman was met in public last time 23 August at the funeral of his son Chingiskhan, who had died in the car crash. The accident happened in Moscow but the funeral took place in North Osetia.

The Russneft was established by merger of a large number of smaller mining companies. The process was governed by former head of the state-owned holding”Slavneft”. Now the company is among the top ten oil companies of the Russian Federation. In 2006, according to the central department of the fuel companies, the company mined 14.76 million tons of oil. Oleg Deripaska’s company”Basic Element” has already been named as the wished applicant for buying the company.