‘The owner of the cash is named on paper. The cash is real and was transferred from a German bank.’
The bank has been named as Deutsche Bank Group, though this is not confirmed.
‘Customs demanded the owner of the cargo to appear in person,’ said Lyalin. ‘The authorities had to make sure that the owner was alive and is not a fake.’
Motlagh (also known as Farzin Ali Karoryan Mutlaq) – who in 2010 was accused of being the “mastermind” of an attempt to steal $14billion from the Central Bank of Abu Dhabi using false documents – has not appeared in Moscow to stake his claim.
He was reported to have avoided trial in the United Arab Emirates by fleeing to Iran.
It is unclear if there is any link between the Abu Dhabi and Moscow cases, but in any event the Russians have rejected his attempts to use intermediaries to claim the cash.