A Russian man who died while jogging had “feared for his life” and was being sued in Moscow by a company associated with one of the killers of Alexander Litvinenko, an inquest has heard.

Alexander Perepilichnyy, 44, was found dead outside his home in Weybridge, Surrey, in November 2012. He had fled to the UK in 2010 after falling out with a series of powerful clients in Russia, the inquest heard on Tuesday.

Traces of a rare and deadly plant poison, Gelsemium elegans, were discovered in his stomach, the inquest has heard. However, Surrey police and Perepilichnyy’s widow have disputed that he was murdered and said the scientific evidence was inconclusive.

Giving evidence by video link from Moscow, Perepilichnyy’s lawyer, Dmitry Lipkin, said he met Perepilichnyy in December 2010 in London. They had had a meal at Gaucho, a restaurant in Regent Street, with Lipkin’s colleague Oleg Ruchkar.

Timeline Poisoned umbrellas and polonium: Russian-linked UK deaths Show Georgi Markov In one of the most chilling episodes of the cold war, the Bulgarian dissident was poisoned with a specially adapted umbrella on Waterloo Bridge. As he waited for a bus, Markov felt a sharp prick in his leg. The opposition activist, who was an irritant to the communist government of Bulgaria, died three days later. A deadly pellet containing ricin was found in his skin. His unknown assassin is thought to have been from the secret services in Bulgaria. Alexander Litvinenko The fatal poisoning of the former FSB officer sparked an international incident. Litvinenko fell ill after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium. He met his killers in a bar of the Millennium hotel in Mayfair. The pair were Andrei Lugovoi – a former KGB officer turned businessman, who is now a deputy in Russia’s state Duma – and Dmitry Kovtun, a childhood friend of Lugovoi’s from a Soviet military family. Putin denied all involvement and refused to extradite either of the killers. German Gorbuntsov The exiled Russian banker survived an attempt on his life as he got out of a cab in east London. He was shot four times with a silenced pistol. He had been involved in a bitter dispute with two former business partners. Alexander Perepilichnyy The businessman collapsed while running near his home in Surrey. Traces of a chemical that can be found in the poisonous plant gelsemium were later found in his stomach. Before his death, Perepilichnyy was helping a specialist investment firm uncover a $230m Russian money-laundering operation, a pre-inquest hearing was told. Hermitage Capital Management claimed that Perepilichnyy could have been deliberately killed for helping it uncover the scam involving Russian officials. He may have eaten a popular Russian dish containing the herb sorrel on the day of his death, which could have been poisoned. Boris Berezovsky The exiled billionaire was found hanged in an apparent suicide after he had spent more than decade waging a high-profile media battle against his one-time protege Putin. A coroner recorded an open verdict after hearing conflicting expert evidence about the way he died. A pathologist who conducted a postmortem examination on the businessman’s body said he could not rule out murder. Scot Young An associate of Berezovsky whom he helped to launder money, he was found impaled on railings after he fell from a fourth-floor flat in central London. A coroner ruled that there was insufficient evidence of suicide. But Young, who was sent to prison in January 2013 for repeatedly refusing to reveal his finances during a divorce row, told his partner he was going to jump out of the window moments before he was found.

Skripal poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were were found unconscious on a bench in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury after 'suspected exposure to an unknown substance' which was later identified as chemical weapon novichok. In the aftermath Theresa May blamed Vladimir Putin and expelled 23 Russian diplomats who were suspected of spying. Two Russian men using the identities Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov were named as suspects. They appeared on Russian TV to protest their innocence.

The Skripals survived. However a local woman, Dawn Sturgess, died after spraying novichok on her wrists from a fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle converted into a dispenser, which had been recovered from a skip by her partner Charlie Rowley.

Lipkin said Perepilichnyy was facing multiple legal actions in Russia. He told the Old Bailey hearing: “Alexander asked us to deal with a few matters. Mostly those matters were concerning his debts, and he approached us … privately.”

The lawyer said the meeting took place in the UK because Perepilichnyy was afraid of returning to Moscow, although he could not remember details of the conversation from seven years ago.

The inquest heard that Perpilichnyy was being sued by Dzhirsa, a Moscow-based business consultancy whose general director is Dmitry Kovtun. A public inquiry concluded that Kovtun poisoned Litvinenko, a critic of Vladimir Putin, with a radioactive cup of tea in 2006. He and his fellow killer, Andrei Lugovoi, had been working for the Russian FSB spy agency, the inquiry ruled.



In a Daily Telegraph article read out at the hearing Kovtun said he did not know Perepilichnyy personally and he had little practical involvement in Dzhirsa.

“I set up Dzhirsa on behalf of some friends who asked me to be the general director because I enjoy a certain reputation. They are former officers who help resolve business disputes – people call them ‘the military men’,” he told the paper.

From exile, Perepilichnyy defended himself against legal actions in Moscow and Smolensk. One was for $3m (£2.12m) and another for £3m ($4.25m), the Old Bailey heard. Both featured bond deals that Perepilichnyy, an investment fund manager, allegedly guaranteed. Dzhirsa’s legal action failed amid allegations that Perepilichnyy’s signature had been forged, the inquest was told.

Lipkin said he did not know if Perepilichnyy was receiving threats from Moscow. In the last months of his life, he took out insurance policies worth £3.5m, and applied for another, worth £5m, days before he collapsed.

Previously, the inquest heard that Perepilichnyy was threatened after revealing details of a $230m fraud carried out by a Russian gang with alleged links to the Kremlin.

The money was stolen from taxes paid by the investment company Hermitage Capital to the Russian treasury. A lawyer who investigated the case, Sergei Magnitsky, was arrested and died in prison in 2009.

Lipkin said he had only found out about Perepilichnyy’s alleged connection to the Hermitage fraud through “open sources” before his death. He said that he represented Hermitage between 2008 and 2012, and had met its CEO, Bill Browder, several times in London.



Peter Skelton QC, counsel to the inquest, said: “Were you aware that Mr Perepilichnyy had spoken to Swiss authorities about a money-laundering operation in respect of the fraud?”



Lipkin said: “We did not act in this matter.”

He told the court he had continued to act for Perepilichnyy’s relatives from his death until 2016.

Skelton said: “So, even though there has been speculation … that Mr Perepilichnyy may have been murdered, none of his relatives or associates have ever expressed a view as to whether that is or is not true?”

Lipikin said: “No. We were not his strategic lawyers, we were just dealing with episodes that concern his debts.”

The inquest continues.