Geneva prosecutor investigates alleged money laundering by senior Yeltsin aide

The Geneva authorities said Wednesday they were investigating money laundering allegations raised against Pavel Borodin, who heads the office running federal and presidential properties. The scandal also involves the Swiss construction company Mabetex.

The Geneva authorities said Wednesday they were investigating money laundering allegations raised against Pavel Borodin, who heads the office running federal and presidential properties. The scandal also involves the Swiss construction company Mabetex.

The prosecutor’s office confirmed earlier Swiss media reports and said it was assisting Moscow’s own investigation of possible corruption and abuse of power by top Russian government officials.

The investigative judge said Swiss banks were ordered last week to freeze any possible accounts held by Borodin, his wife and 22 other Russian nationals who may be involved in the scandal.

Borodin made headlines earlier this month when he justified the $355 million price tag for the renovation of the Grand Kremlin Palace, a famed concert and meeting hall considered to be one of Russia’s most valued landmarks.

The Mabetex firm based in the southern Swiss Canton of Ticino was alleged to have paid huge sums to Borodin and other administration officials in return for restauration contracts at the Kremlin and other buildings.

Borodin admitted a week ago that companies from Italy and Austria were involved in the renovation project but he said that Mabetex had not worked on the Kremlin Palace.

Following Moscow’s call for assistance, Swiss police raided the office of Mabetex and confiscated company documents and records.

The allegations of Kremlin corruption stemming from the Mabetex case have provoked a major scandal in Russia. The country’s embattled prosecutor general, Yuri Skuratov, was investigating the allegations and claimed that repeated attempts to remove him from office were part of an effort to curb the inquiry.

Borodin has also claimed that the accusations are part of an orchestrated campaign against him in the run-up to parliamentary elections in December and a presidential ballot in 2000.


From staff and wire reports.