When Legal and general issued a policy on Russian exile Alexander Perepilichnyy’s life the insurer had little idea that he might be the target of an assassination attempt using a rare poison – but that is exactly what the carrier is claiming happened in court.
Eight days after his policy became active (one of a number of multi-million policies with different insurers) Perepilichnyy’s body was found near his £3 million house after he had set off for a jog around his high-security Weybridge . A secondary autopsy ordered by the insurer found apparent toxins from an incredibly poisonous plant Gelsemium elegans which The Telegraph reported to be favoured by Chinese and Russian assasins. The plant can only be found in remote areas of China and has a history of being used to either kill people,or, in one case, to nearly kill people. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author the the Sherlock Holmes tales experimented on himself with it).
Legal and General’s QC, Bob Moxon Browne pointed the finger of suspicion at a Russian lawyer, Andrei Pavvlov, who allegedly fled the UK the day after Perepilichnyy’s death. The Telegraph reported that Perepilichnyy had documents that he claimed showed how senior Moscow tax authorities had benefitted from a Russian organized crime gang that had perpetrated a £155 million fraud.
Legal and General are asking to gain access to CCTV footage from Perepilichnyy’s estate and for British police to fly to Turkey to interview a Validol Lurakmaev who has been detained by the Turkish authorities and is on an Interpol wanted list. Russian media reports claim that Perepilichnyy’s name was on a list found in Lurakmaev ‘s flat.
