Russian opposition firebrand Alexei Navalny has reported the Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and his family to the Swiss financial regulation body FINMA, citing their alleged involvement in suspect business schemes with links to organized crime, the RBC news site reported Tuesday.
According to the report, submitted by Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), a group of local lawyers set up to “launder illegally acquired funds,” which may have included those of the Chaika family, had been active in Switzerland for at least 10 years, RBC wrote.
The foundation urged FINMA to investigate several Swiss citizens allegedly involved with the group. It also alleged that the top prosecutor's son Artyom may have acquired permanent Swiss residency illegally, the article went on to say.
On Dec. 1, FBK published online an investigation incriminating Chaika, as well as his sons Artyom and Igor, in a range of shady business deals, the illegal seizure of a state-owned enterprise, and a murder, in addition to listing foreign assets allegedly owned by the family.
The report, along with a 40-minute YouTube video summing up its conclusions which gathered more than 1.4 million views in the first two days after publication, led to a war of words between Navalny and Chaika, with the prosecutor dismissing the probe as “commissioned” and “a hatchet job,” and the opposition campaigner threatening to file a slander lawsuit in response.
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