Russia Detains Billionaire Founder of Ros Agro, Tass Says

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(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s law enforcement agencies detained Vadim Moshkovich, billionaire founder of Ros Agro, one of the nation’s largest agricultural businesses, according to state news agency Tass.

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Moshkovich and several other unidentified people are being interrogated, and agents are searching residences and Ros Agro offices, Tass reported Wednesday, citing representatives of the authorities. The case has been opened due to “embezzlement” in companies that do business with Ros Agro, Interfax said citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter.

The company “fully complies with the law and is ready to provide all necessary assistance to authorities,” Ros Agro said in a statement on its website, adding that the searches in the offices are “not related to the company’s current operations.” Ros Agro didn’t comment on the reported detention of Moshkovich.

Moshkovich’s family holds 49% in Ros Agro, according to Interfax. His detention comes as Russian authorities intensify a crackdown on some major private companies.

In January, leading Russian grain-trading house Rodnie Polya, formerly known as TD Rif, was transferred to the state property fund. A court ruled that the trader is strategically important for the nation and cannot be controlled by an owner with a UAE residence and citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Kommersant reported.

Read: Russia Targets Tycoons With Foreign Ties in Wartime Assets Grab

Ros Agro owns almost 700,000 hectares of agricultural land in Russia, and is the nation’s largest producer of sunflower oil, second-largest sugar producer and third-largest producer of pork meat, according to the company’s website. Last year, the bulk of its revenues came from oil and fats, as well as the sugar business.

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