BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

11/04/2008

War of the Oligarchs Ensnares New Yorker

By BENNY AVNI

Several dozen demonstrators in front of the Belarusian U.N. mission in Manhattan last week demanded the release of a New York-based lawyer, Emanuel Zeltser, who has been held in a Minsk jail cell since March 12.

The protest was related to an international battle over the estate of the Georgian-born businessman Arkady Patarkatsishvili, who died in London in February at age 52. The estate is worth billions - some say $5 billion, others say up to $15 billion. Figuring out exactly how much is difficult: Like many international businessmen, and particularly the oligarchs of the former Soviet republics, the man known as "Badri" conducted complex and far-flung business dealings through several partnerships and companies in which he held stakes. His best-known partner was the London-based, Russian-born businessman Boris Berezovsky.

Mr. Zeltser, one of Patarkatsishvili's lawyers - and now representing Patarkatsishvili's American cousin, Joseph Kay - arrived in Minsk on March 12 aboard Mr. Berezovsky's private plane. Shortly after landing in Belarus, Mr. Zeltser was arrested by the Committee for State Security, or KGB, for allegedly possessing forged documents.

According to a letter Mr. Kay wrote to the American Embassy in Georgia, Mr. Zeltser possesses a will, or "letter of wishes," that names Mr. Kay as executor of Patarkatsishvili's estate. Mr. Berezovsky heard about the will from Mr. Zeltser, according to the letter. During a condolences gathering in London, Mr. Berezovsky "took me to the corner of the room and told me that I should know that he and Badri were 50-50% partners and from then on he, Boris Berezovsky, owned 50% of all of Badri's assets," Mr. Kay wrote. Mr. Berezovsky was unable to produce proof of his assertion, according to the letter, so Mr. Kay told him that he would handle the estate according to the family's wishes. The letter also claims that Mr. Berezovsky has influence in Belarus because he invests there. Similar statements were made in a letter sent by Mr. Zeltser's brother, Alan, to an Israel Police representative in Washington. Mr. Berezovsky, who has clashed with President Putin and other heads of state, considers Israel and London his remaining bases of operations. So did Patarkatsishvili, who in the last year of his life clashed with the Georgian government.

For more than a week I have asked Mr. Berezovsky, his lawyers, and other associates to comment, which they have so far declined.

"I spoke with [Mr. Zeltser] the day before about the trip," Mr. Berezovsky acknowledged in an interview published on the Web site of the Russian newspaper Kommersant. "I told him, if you consider the documents in order, go to Belarus and prove it."

Alan Zeltser told me that his brother, who is 54, suffers from diabetes, gout, and other ailments, and may die in the Belarusian KGB jail. After Emanuel Zeltser's Belarusian lawyer visited the jail this week, he told Alan Zeltser that his brother "would not survive three weeks without the medication," Alan Zeltser said yesterday.

A State Department spokesman for consular affairs, Steve Royster, said an American consulate representative in Minsk was able to visit Mr. Zeltser in prison last week. Although not a doctor, Mr. Royster said, the American visitor found Mr. Zeltser to be in fine health. But Mr. Royster acknowledged that the State Department has received complaints that medications Mr. Zeltser is used to taking were unavailable. Mr. Royster also acknowledged that the embassy in Tbilisi has received Mr. Kay's letter.

Who is right in this war of the oligarchs? Who knows? Mr. Berezovsky is a colorful character and a tough businessman, but Mr. Zeltser is also a character, as detailed in a 2000 New York magazine profile of him. Either way, Belarus is hardly the best venue to solve a legal dispute over the estate of a deceased businessman, and a New Yorker should not be allowed to die in its jails.

Source:

http://www2.nysun.com/article/74543

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