An arrest warrant has been issued for Yevgeny Chichvarkin, the flamboyant founder of the Yevroset cell phone chain in Russia, although the tycoon is allegedly vacationing in the United Kingdom.
Moscow's Basmanny Court issued the arrest warrant for the former owner of the popular retailer on Wednesday. Chichvarkin is wanted in connection with kidnapping and extortion charges. Earlier this week Chichvarkin was placed on the international wanted list. Russia's branch of Interpol, which is part of the Interior Ministry, could not confirm or deny this, but a spokesman for the Interior Ministry told The Moscow News that the paperwork involved in placing him on the wanted list could take days or weeks.
Chichvarkin is being investigated together with four other Yevroset employees in the kidnapping of Andrei Vlaskin, another employee accused of selling stolen phones. Vlaskin was kidnapped in 2003 and held in an apartment until he paid back the money. In 2005, a case into the stolen phones was launched. But the case against Chichvarkin was opened only earlier this month, weeks after he had left the country. Prosecutors say that Chichvarkin left for Britain in late December.
The other employees accused in the case, Yevroset vice president for security Boris Levin, his deputy Alexander Yermilin, security service staff Sergei Katorkin and Vitaly Tsverkunov are being held in a special section of a Moscow detention center because they are former state security officials.
Prosecutor Zelimkhan Kostoyev was quoted by news agencies as saying that Chichvarkin "was a chairman of the board of directors of the company," and therefore the other employees being investigated in the case are dependent on him. But Chichvarkin, who has been identified as chairman in other interviews, is no longer formally part of the company, Yevroset press secretary Natalya Aristova told The Moscow News. "He has not held the post of chairman since selling the company last fall," she said. Chichvarkin sold the company in late September to billionaire Alexander Mamut for a reported $400 million in cash. "For the press, we say that he is the founder of the company, but he does not hold any official post here." She added that the case against Chichvarkin has not affected her company in any way.
Chichvarkin's defense has called the arrest illegal, meanwhile. His lawyer, Vladimir Zherebyonkov, has said that no separate criminal case has been opened and plans to appeal the ruling.
Chichvarkin is also a candidate for the leadership of the Moscow branch of the newly-formed Pravoye Delo (Right Cause), a liberal pro-Kremlin party that replaced the now defunct oppositionist SPS party. Although party leaders have said that the Moscow branch could not be headed by a man living abroad (and Chichvarkin is unlikely to return now that there is an arrest warrant for him), a senior party member quoted by RIA Novosti said he saw no cause in striking him of the shortlist of candidates.
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