Federal court rejects firm’s bid to seize Borodin bail bond

Noga had got the tall ship, Sedov, temporarily impounded in France last year Keystone Archive

Switzerland's Federal Court has thrown out an attempt by a Geneva-based company to seize the bail money paid to secure the release of a former top Kremlin official, Pavel Borodin, who is facing charges of money laundering.

The court, based in Lausanne, said the trading company Noga had failed to prove its claim that the Russian government had paid Borodin’s SFr5 million ($3 million) bail last April.

Noga had been trying to obtain compensation in a long-standing legal row with the Russian government. The Swiss-based firm claims Moscow owes it $62 million from oil-for-food deals signed in the early 1990s.

The Swiss authorities released Borodin on bail after charging him with accepting about $30 million in bribes from Swiss contractors when he was Kremlin property manager under former President Boris Yeltsin. He denies the charge.

Noga’s appeal for the bail money is the latest attempt in its ongoing efforts to retrieve some of the money which it claims to be owed by Moscow. Last June it asked the French authorities to impound two Russian jet fighters at the Paris Air Show, but the planes returned to Russia before they could be seized.

Noga succeeded last year in having the Russian tall ship, Sedov, impounded for 11 days when it came to France to take part in an international regatta.

The legal battle has also led to the temporary freezing of the accounts of the Russian Embassy in Paris.

An arbitration court in Stockholm, Sweden, has backed Noga in its dispute with the Russian government.

Borodin was arrested on a Swiss warrant January 17 at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport. After a New York judge denied him bail, he agreed to be flown to Switzerland in April. A Geneva court released him on bail soon afterward.

Under the bail arrangement, Borodin is allowed to return to Russia between Geneva court appearances.

swissinfo with agencies