The Russian construction company Inteco, owned by Yelena Baturina, the billionaire wife of Moscow ex-mayor Yury Luzhkov, is functioning as usual despite rumors that the company could be sold, company spokesman Gennady Terebkov said Wednesday.
Before he was fired by President Dmitry Medvedev over "loss of trust" in late September, Luzhkov was subject to widespread public criticism for using his position to help his wife amass her $2.9 billion wealth through construction contracts in the Russian capital.
Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told RIA Novosti Tuesday that a criminal investigation was underway into the illegal granting of ownership rights to plots of land with an area of over 16 hectares in Moscow's west.
He said ownership rights were illegally granted to the Matveyevskoye company in 1992, and added that one of Inteco's subsidiary companies bought the disputed territory after 2003.
Terebkov said no criminal cases have been launched against the company and added that the company is now seeking ways to settle the dispute with the state property management agency out of court.
"The continuing insinuations on the company's alleged sale are a regular canard launched by journalists and their anonymous sources," he said.
MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti)
