Ex-Director of EBRD Pleads Not Guilty to Extortion Charges

Yelena Kotova, Russia’s former top representative at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) who has been charged with seeking a bribe of $1.4 million, pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday, the RAPSI legal news agency reports from the Moscow courtroom. Igor Lebedev, a former top manager of a leading Russian bank, also denied charges against him. The court will examine evidence and question some foreign witnesses on February 12. The Interior Ministry announced last January that Kotova and Lebedev had been charged with abuse of office and using their ties in the business community to solicit funds from a Canadian oil company. The investigation discovered that Kotova allegedly solicited $1.425 million from representatives of a Canadian oil company in exchange for helping it get a $95 million loan from the EBRD.

http://en.ria.ru/crime/20140205/187227733/Ex-Director-of-EBRD-Pleads-Not-Guilty-to-Extortion-Charges.html