A Yekaterinburg businessman named Mars Sharafulin and his financial director Natalya Krasnoperova have recently been placed on the international wanted list. Head of the Internal Affairs Department’s Sverdlovsk Region division press service Valeriy Gorelykh says they are suspected of large-scale tax evasion.

In fact, searches were made as early as 2009 at Severskiy granite mine and ZAO Stroitelnyie Technologii which were both controlled by Mars Sharafulin. The Department of Internal Affairs claims these companies backed out of tax-paying, thus doing some 26 million RUR worth of damage to the state.

After a criminal suit had been instituted (with charges based on Article 199 (part 2) of the Russian Federation Criminal Code, namely, large-scale tax evasion), Mars Sharafulin and Natalya Krasnoperova went into hiding.