Businessman Viktor Baturin has filed a claim with the Investigative Committee saying his sister, Inteko owner Yelena Baturina, owed him 3.5 billion rubles ($117 million) in wages.
Baturin sent a letter to the committee’s head, Alexander Bastrykin, early last week asking him to investigate “the facts” of his sister’s “criminal activity,” Kommersant reported Friday.
He said Baturina had not paid him 3.46 billion rubles in salary for his work at Inteko after they completed a property split in 2007. Baturin also said his sister had
taken his stake of 24 percent in the construction company. He said he valued the total damages to his holdings at up to $1 billion.
Inteko called Baturin’s claims the “ravings of a madman.”
The businessman was fired from Inteko in 2005 as a conflict between the siblings broke out over his opposition to investing in “dubious projects abroad,” Baturin’s letter said.
Baturin said the decision to file the claim was not connected with the dismissal of former Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Baturina’s husband, calling the timing “a coincidence,” NTV reported Friday.
But he said in the letter that all his attempts to sue Baturina had failed because of her high-ranking contacts.
“Wherever I appealed I failed to get justice, taking into account the Moscow corruption and Baturina’s contacts in the law enforcement bodies and courts,” he said, adding that he had to settle the conflict peacefully for this reason.
Baturin featured prominently in a program shown on NTV last month accusing Baturina and Inteko of graft.
The Investigative Committee has said it was not aware of the claim.
The siblings founded Inteko in 1991, with each owning 50 percent. During the property split in 2007, Baturina got 99 percent of Inteko, with the rest being part of the company’s balance sheet.
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