The court arrested St. Petersburg billionaire Dmitry Mikhalchenko

The Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested until May 29 the head of the Forum holding, Dmitry Mikhalchenko, accused of smuggling alcohol. RBC reports this.

The defense asked the court to extend the period of detention to collect the necessary documents about Mikhalchenko’s health condition. The businessman himself asked to be released on bail of 50 million rubles.

According to TASS, on the evening of March 30, other defendants in the case were arrested - deputy head of the Forum Boris Korevsky, director of the South-Eastern Trading Company Ilya Pichko and deputy general director of Contrail Logistics North-West Anatoly Kindzersky (previously it was reported that the case was Valery Kindzersky).

Mikhalchenko is accused of smuggling alcohol in 2015, creating an organized criminal group that transported alcohol from the port of Hamburg under the guise of construction sealant. The investigation estimated the damage from Mikhalchenko’s activities at 2 million rubles.

RBC

• The detention of businessman Dmitry Mikhalchenko became known on March 30. Besides him, three people are involved in the case of alcohol smuggling.
• According to Fontanka, the case was opened in early March after containers with rare Courvoisier cognac were discovered in the port of Ust-Luga, for which the necessary documents were not issued.
• The containers were discovered as part of a pre-investigation audit of the activities of the Contrail Logistics North-West company. According to investigators, this company was engaged in supplying wines and cognacs to restaurants owned by Mikhalchenko.