Kremlin vows to stand up for Russian billionaire arrested in France (updated)
22/11/2017 12:20
* Suleiman Kerimov detained at Nice airport
* Shares in family-owned gold miner slump
* Kremlin: we will protect his lawful interests
* Arrest connected to tax evasion case
(Adds details, quotes, background)
By Katya Golubkova and Polina Devitt
MOSCOW, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday it
will spare no effort to defend the rights of Suleiman Kerimov, a
Russian businessman and lawmaker who was arrested in the French
Riviera resort of Nice in connection with a French tax evasion
case.
Shares in Polyus PLZL.MM , Russia's biggest gold producer
which is controlled by Kerimov's family, were down on the news
of his detention.
"We will do everything in our power to protect his lawful
interests," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular
conference call with reporters. "Intensive work is now being
undertaken by the foreign ministry."
A representative for Kerimov in the upper house of
parliament, where he sits as a lawmaker, declined to comment on
the case on Wednesday when contacted by Reuters. Polyus declined
to comment.
Russia's state-run Rossiya 24 TV station, citing an unnamed
source, reported that the 51-year-old billionaire had denied any
guilt.
In the lower house of parliament, lawmaker Rizvan Kurbanov
asked the Russian foreign ministry to make representations on
Kerimov's behalf with the French authorities.
"We have still not received from the French authorities any
explanation of the reasons for the detention of our colleague,"
Kurbanov told parliament.
"All this testifies to an unprecedented demarche by the
French," he said, adding that he hoped the Russian foreign
ministry would issue a formal protest.
LUXURY RESIDENCES
Shares in Polyus were down by more than 3 percent in early
trade in Moscow but since then recovered some ground to trade at
minus 1 percent by 1217 GMT.
Originally from the mainly Muslim Russian region of
Dagestan, Kerimov built his multi-billion natural resources
business through a combination of debt, an appetite for risk,
and political connections.
He owned top flight soccer club Anzhi Makhachkala until he
sold it in 2016.
Kerimov's fortune peaked at $17.5 billion in 2008 before
slumping to just $3 billion in 2009, according to Forbes
magazine, due to so-called margin-calls on his assets triggered
by the 2008 global financial crisis.
In March this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed
a decree giving Kerimov the state award "For Services to the
Fatherland, second class" for his contribution to Russian
parliamentary life.
French police arrested Kerimov at Nice airport on Monday
evening.
A French judicial source said the investigation centred on
the purchase of several luxury residences on the French Riviera
via shell companies, something that would have enabled Kerimov
to reduce taxes owed to the French state.
Kerimov is a regular visitor to Nice and in 2006 he crashed
his Ferrari Enzo into a palm tree on the city's Promenade Des
Anglais. A woman Russian TV presenter was also in the car at the
time.
Kerimov was badly injured and on his rare occasions since in
public he has worn gloves to conceal his burns.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt, Elena Fabrichnaya, Dmitry Solovyov
and Olga Sichkar; writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by
Christian Lowe and Richard Balmforth)
((ekaterina.golubkova@thomsonreuters.com; +7 495 775 1242;))
Keywords: RUSSIA PARLIAMENT/FRANCE POLICE