Russian police strip Chichvarkin nanny of credit cards, cash

MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - Investigators working on a case against a former co-owner of cell phone retailer Euroset, Yevgeny Chichvarkin, have seized credit cards and currency from his children's nanny, a Russian newspaper said on Friday.

The nanny for Chichvarkin's two children was temporarily detained on Monday night at Moscow's Domodedovo airport. The officers confiscated two Visa platinum cards belonging to the businessman and his wife and 6,000 British pounds ($5,500) in cash.

The 30-year-old woman was later released and allowed to board her flight to London, the Kommersant business daily said.

Moscow's Basmanny Court on January 28 authorized an arrest warrant in absentia for Chichvarkin, who is currently in Britain. An international warrant for his arrest was issued a day earlier.

Charges were brought against Chichvarkin as part of an earlier kidnapping case against former Euroset vice president Boris Levin and two other company officials.

Chichvarkin is suspected of authorizing the 2003 abduction of Euroset's shipping agent, Andrei Vlaskin, who allegedly stole large quantities of mobile phones from the company and then sold them on through a retail outlet he had set up for the purpose.

As part of the investigation, police operatives raided on Wednesday a Euroset office and the residence of Chichvarkin's personal assistant in search for the evidence related to the criminal case.

They seized 9,000 British pounds, 850,000 rubles (about $24,000) in cash, several laptops, cell phones, and other electronic data storage devices.

Russian authorities consistently denied rumors that the case against Chichvarkin had been a warning signal to Russian business.