Berezovsky’s Heirs May Inherit his $106 Mln Debts

MOSCOW, March 30 (RIA Novosti) – Heirs of late Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky may inherit his 3.3 billion rubles ($106 million) debts that Russian courts ordered him to pay, the Federal Bailiff Service said in a statement.

The Russian businessman had resided since 2000 in the UK, where he died a week ago at the age of 67. He had previously been found guilty in absentia of fraud and organized crime by Russian courts in two criminal cases, while several other trials are still pending.

The statement said there were currently five court enforcement proceedings in regard to Berezovsky that obliged him to pay 3.3 billion rubles to Russian national flagship airline Aeroflot and the administration of the Samara Region.

In November 2007, a Russian court sentenced Berezovsky in absentia to six years in jail for stealing millions of dollars from the state-run Aeroflot airlines in the 1990s. The court also ruled to repay $9 million for embezzlement of Aeroflot.

In June 2009, he was sentenced in absentia to a further 13 years for stealing thousands of cars from carmaker AvtoVAZ, also in the 1990s. He was also convicted of stealing 58 million rubles ($2 million) from LogoVAZ. Both LogoVAZ and AvtoVaz are based in the Samara Region.

At the request of Russian prosecutors, in 2011 assets worth more than $320 million belonging to Berezovsky were frozen by several countries, including property worth 13 million euros in France.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said last week that pending criminal cases against the fugitive oligarch could be closed upon receiving official notification of his death from Britain and the consent of his relatives.