(dpa) - Police in the Baltic nation of Latvia on Wednesday said they have been searching for Leonid Rozhetskin, a US millionaire of Russian origin, who disappeared from his home, amidst signs of foul play.
Police found blood stains, broken furniture turned upside-down in his private home at the resort town of Jurmala, outside the Latvian capital, Riga. They have located Rozhetskin's car as well as his private plane, on which he landed in the Baltic nation last weekend.
"I am anxious about the case and I understand that nothing good has happened there. ... There must have been some violence," chief of Latvian State Police Aldis Lieljuksis told Latvian Public Radio on Wednesday.
He added he hoped fast forensic tests would determine the origin of the blood stains.
In 2006, Russian prosecutors placed the 42-year-old Rozhetskin, who disappeared early Sunday morning, on an international search list for an alleged fraud involving 40 million dollars. The Latvian authorities assume his disappearance is connected with his business dealings.
Recently, Rozhetskin moved into the media industry, setting up a free business newspaper in London, City A.M. and co-founded a Los Angeles-based feature film production L+E Productions.
According to unofficial information, Rozhetskin arrived in Latvia alone on his private plane on Saturday and planned to return to the US on Tuesday.
From 2001 to 2005, Rozhetskin used to be the vice-president of Russian Norilsk Nickel metalworks, Russia's largest mining company and the world's largest miner of nickel and palladium metals, and his investment company LV Finance used to own one fourth of Russia's third largest mobile phone operator MegaFon.
The Russian prosecutor's office believes that through a complicated financial transaction, Rozhetskin stole a large sum of money from a Russian telecommunications company Ipoc, which was meant for purchasing shares of the mobile operator.
Born in Russia in 1966, Rozhetskin emigrated with his family to the United States in 1980, according to his website. He graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School.
One year after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, he returned to Russia to set up a legal firm, and later moved into the finance sector, founding an investment bank and a venture capital firm.
From 1992 to 1994, he worked as an attorney in the US.