MOSCOW, March 31 (RIA Novosti) – Fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky was in line for a $300-million cash bonanza shortly before his death, The Sunday Times reported, citing its sources.
The exiled Russian oligarch, who police say died of hanging in the bathroom of his home in Ascot in southern England last weekend, is widely believed to have taken his own life because of financial problems brought about by his High Court defeat to another Russian tycoon, Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club.
But leaked emails and police documents indicate that an investment company that controlled three of his offshore trusts was due to liquidate assets “between October 2012 and March 2013 with the ultimate aim of providing him with a fund in the region of some $300 million,” the paper said.
Berezovsky, an avowed Kremlin foe, had lived in self-imposed exile in Britain since 2000 and had been pursued for extradition by authorities in Russia for prosecution over alleged fraud.
In July 2011, Berezovsky’s ex-wife, 53-year-old Galina Besharova, won a divorce settlement that British media dubbed the English legal system's largest ever divorce payout, rumored to be worth up to 220 million pounds sterling (over $330 million).
In January, the judge presiding over another case involving Berezovsky issued a ruling describing the businessman as “a man under financial pressure.”
