Georgian billionaire declared 'enemy of the state' is found dead in UK

RightinNYC · 02-13-08, 08:04 PM

Georgian billionaire declared 'enemy of the state' is found dead in Surrey exile - Home News, UK - Independent.co.uk

Quote:

Badri Patarkatsishvili, an exiled billionaire considered an "enemy of the state" in his native Georgia, has died in his Surrey mansion of a suspected heart attack, two months after accusing Georgian authorities of plotting his murder.

Surrey police said they were treating the death as "suspicious" and ordered a post-mortem examination. Mr Patarkatsishvili, who challenged the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in last month's presidential election, was based in Britain after having his assets frozen in Georgia, where he faced charges of attempting to mount a coup against the president.

It is the second time in just over a year that British police have been brought in to investigate the death of a man with links to leading Russian dissidents in London, following the murder of the former KGB security agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died of radiation poisoning in a London hospital. Mr Patarkatsishvili, a 52-year old television mogul who owned the independent station Imedi TV in Georgia, was a long-time associate of Boris Berezovsky, the former employer of Mr Litvinenko. In another quirk of tangled destinies, Mr Patarkatsishvili once employed Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB operative wanted by Britain over Mr Litvinenko's murder.

...

However Mr Patarkatsishvili was no friend of the Kremlin, having fallen out with Vladimir Putin when the Russian leader turned on Russia's oligarchs and pursued them for fraud and embezzlement. He funded the "rose" revolution that brought Mr Saakashvili to power, but since 2006 he has accused him of having dictatorial tendencies, and was a driving force behind the November protests.

...

Western analysts in Tbilisi said that Mr Patarkatsishvili's death will have a serious impact on the political situation in Georgia, although he was not a serious rival of the president. He died the day after four computers were stolen from his party's offices in Tbilisi. Following the election, the tycoon had lost his immunity and the Georgian government had recently sought British help in pursuing legal action against him, according to diplomats.

...

Mr Patarkatsishvili's family wants his body returned to Georgia, local media reported. The tycoon, who was married with two daughters, has two sisters in Georgia who said he had no history of heart problems. The Georgian government made no comment on his death.

Mr Patarkatsishvili was not the only rival of the Georgian president forced into exile. A former defence minister, Irakli Okruashvili, fled to Germany after accusing the president last September of planning to assassinate Mr Patarkatsishvili. He is in France seeking asylum.

Billionaires who are on the wrong side of Putin and his cronies keep on winding up dead. Could be a coincidence, but it's shady either way.