Russian Businessman Didn't Die From Poisoning, U.K. Judge Says

(Bloomberg) -- A Russian businessman, who collapsed and died while he was out jogging in the U.K., wasn’t unlawfully killed, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Alexander Perepilichnyy "more likely than not" died of cardiac arrest, Judge Nicholas Hilliard said at the end of a long-running inquest that heard allegations that he had been poisoned by Russian agents.

Perepilichnyy, who had been working with Hermitage Capital founder Bill Browder to help a Swiss money laundering probe into a $230 million tax fraud, died in November 2012 near his home outside London. The police at the scene believed the businessman to have died of natural causes and didn’t immediately order a forensic examination. He was 44 years old.

"The inquest was completely tainted by an incompetent Surrey police investigation where they lost or discarded most of the key evidence," Browder said after the ruling.

Trace of a rare poison were found in Perepilichnyy’s stomach, triggering a more thorough probe, a coroner said previously.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Browning in London at jbrowning9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Peter Chapman

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