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To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (14248)	8/27/1999 5:30:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Yeltsins deny accepting $1m 'pocket money' By Ben Aris in Moscow THE Kremlin strongly denied yesterday that President Yeltsin and his daughters received $1 million dollars (£646,000) in bribes. The statement followed allegations in the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Bahgjet Pacolli, head of the Italian construction company Mabetex said in an interview with the Italian daily that his firm gave Mr Yeltsin $1 million "pocket money" to pay for personal expenses run up on a trip to Budapest, Hungary, in 1994. Mabetex has won government construction contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars over the past six years, including fitting out the President's residence in the Kremlin. The Kremlin was first accused of corruption in March by Russia's general prosecutor, Yuri Skuratov, as part of politically motivated investigations into corruption in the Kremlin's inner circles. Wednesday's allegations are the first to name Mr Yeltsin. The Kremlin press office statement said yesterday: "The president of the Russian Federation, his wife and his children, never opened accounts in foreign banks." The newspaper did not claim that the president and his family had opened foreign bank accounts. Mr Pacolli alleged in the article that he paid credit card bills for Mr Yeltsin and his two daughters, Tatyana Dyachenko and Yelena Okulova, as well as the former Kremlin security chief Alexander Korzhakov. Other money was allegedly paid through the accounts of the head of the Kremlin's household affairs. The newspaper, which claims to have copies of the credit card slips, wrote: "The president doesn't seem to have abused Pacolli's cards. But his daughters? Their accounts are the least stingy." It claims that Ms Dyachenko spent thousands of pounds in a day. A spokesman for Mabetex also denied the report. Mr Pacolli could not be reached for comment as he was "on holiday". Despite the best efforts by the Kremlin to kill the Mabetex story, it keeps coming back. Mr Skuratov's investigations are believed to have been ordered by the then prime minister Yevgeny Primakov. After Mr Primakov was sacked in May, the investigation was quietly dropped. The president also sacked Mr Skuratov after he was shown in bed with two prostitutes on national television. But last month Swiss authorities froze the accounts of Pavel Borodin, the head of Kremlin household affairs. His name is linked to the latest allegations, as Mr Pacolli said the money was paid through his accounts. telegraph.co.uk

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (14248)	8/27/1999 5:37:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

Key Figure In Russian Corruption Inquiry Accuses Yeltsin ROME, Aug 27, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) A man named as a key figure in a probe into a Kremlin financial scandal has accused Russian President Boris Yeltsin of accepting bribes, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported Friday. Russian-born businessman Felipe Turover told the newspaper he was a witness in four investigations in Russia and in Switzerland because of his longstanding high-level contacts in Russia. He said Yeltsin was "behind" Pavel Borodin, the Kremlin property manager -- a powerful job that allows him to decide who wins contracts to service everything from Kremlin real estate to cars. Borodin is suspected of having taken bribes from Kosovar businessman Bexhet Pacolli in return for important construction contracts in Moscow. "Behind Pacolli, there is Borodin and behind Borodin there is only one person, the most important of persons," said Turover. Asked by the newspaper who he meant, he added: "President Yeltsin, who still backs him (Borodin) because Borodin knows too much." Turover continued: "When he (Borodin) is no longer useful or is too much of a threat, he will fly through a window like his predecessor, the Treasurer of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) Krushina, who in 1991 took a dive from the window of the same office that Borodin occupies today." Turover, who holds joint Israeli-Spanish nationality, added: "For 30 years you have the flower of the construction industry present in Russia. You have French, Turkish, Finnish and Italian companies." Suddenly, they had disappeared in favor of a little Swiss company with 100,000 francs (62,000 euros) in capital: Pacolli's company, said Turover. "I think there is enough material there to awake the interest of the magistrates." The Kremlin was using Pacolli's company to grab the state's wealth, he added. The Kremlin on Thursday denied that Yeltsin and his family had foreign bank accounts, as Corriere reported in an earlier article. Borodin on Thursday denied allegations of taking bribes from Pacolli, saying the accusations were part of a media-led smear campaign against the president and his advisors. Pacolli has also denied the accusations in an interview with Corriere. On Thursday, the paper carried an interview with Russia's former chief prosecutor Yury Skuratov, who accused Yeltsin's office of blocking his investigation into corruption at the highest levels. Swiss magistrates have seized documents linking Yeltsin and his family to a kickbacks scheme of at least $1 million. Italy's Corriere della Sera reported Wednesday that the payments were made by the Swiss-based company Mabetex in exchange for lucrative contracts to restore the Grand Kremlin palace and the government building. The kickbacks scheme revelations have coincided with growing questions about Russian money-laundering, after the New York Times last week reported that billions of dollars from the Russian mob had moved through the Bank of New York in what could be the biggest money laundering scheme ever detected in US history. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)