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Billionaire’s house arrest sends stocks crashing

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 5, 2009 file photo, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left, and Russian tycoon Vladimir Yevtushenkov, owner of Sistema Holding, during their meeting in Moscow. A billionaire Russian tycoon was placed under house arrest Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014, in a money-laundering case that has drawn comparisons with a government crackdown on Russia’s Yukos oil company more than a decade ago. The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top investigative agency, said that Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the head of Sistema holding company, was suspected of involvement in a money-laundering scheme involving oil assets in the province of Bashkiria. Sistema owns the Bashneft oil company, which is based in Bashkiria. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Pool, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, May 5, 2009 file photo, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left, and Russian tycoon Vladimir Yevtushenkov, owner of Sistema Holding, during their meeting in Moscow. A billionaire Russian tycoon was placed under house arrest Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014, in a money-laundering case that has drawn comparisons with a government crackdown on Russia’s Yukos oil company more than a decade ago. The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top investigative agency, said that Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the head of Sistema holding company, was suspected of involvement in a money-laundering scheme involving oil assets in the province of Bashkiria. Sistema owns the Bashneft oil company, which is based in Bashkiria. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Pool, File) FILE - In this Tuesday, May 5, 2009 file photo, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left, and Russian tycoon Vladimir Yevtushenkov, owner of Sistema Holding, during their meeting in Moscow. A billionaire Russian tycoon was placed under house arrest Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014, in a money-laundering case that has drawn comparisons with a government crackdown on Russia’s Yukos oil company more than a decade ago. The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top investigative agency, said that Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the head of Sistema holding company, was suspected of involvement in a money-laundering scheme involving oil assets in the province of Bashkiria. Sistema owns the Bashneft oil company, which is based in Bashkiria. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Pool, File)

By Associated Press 1 min read

MOSCOW (AP) – The arrest of a Russian billionaire has sent shares in his holding company into a tailspin.

Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who is worth $9 billion according to the Russian Forbes magazine, was placed under house arrest late Tuesday in a money-laundering case which has drawn comparisons with a government crackdown on the Yukos oil company more than a decade ago.

Shares in Sistema, a company which Yevtushenkov controls and manages, collapsed by 28 percent in the first half hour of trading at Moscow’s MICEX stock exchange on Wednesday.

Sistema controls Russia’s largest mobile phone operator MTS, oil company Bashneft as well as other lucrative assets. MTS was down by 8 percent and Bashneft lower by 12 percent Wednesday morning.