This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A coroner has ruled that a Russian millionaire died of natural causes when he collapsed outside his home in Surrey.

Nicholas Hilliard QC ruled that Alexander Perepilichnyy died of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome while out jogging. The finding, which was made at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, disappointed associates of the whistleblower who are convinced he was murdered and possibly poisoned.

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Hilliard said he could not “completely eliminate all possibility” that Perepilichnyy was the victim of foul play. But he said “there is no direct evidence that he was killed or any compelling circumstantial evidence either”.

He added: “In my judgment it is likely he died of natural causes.”

The coroner said it was possible a “novel unknown substance” was used to murder the Russian exile. He made clear, however, that “if he was killed in this way it left no trace which could be picked up at postmortem”.

The ruling brings to a close a bitter six-year battle that has pitted Perepilichnyy’s widow, Tatiana, and Surrey police against an insurance company and the Kremlin critic Bill Browder.

It also featured the controversial use of a government gagging order to prevent sensitive documents from being revealed.

Perepilichnyy, 44, was found dead near his home in Weybridge, Surrey, in November 2012. The inquest heard that he had spent the previous two days in Paris with his Ukrainian lover.

The businessman had fled Russia and relocated with his family to the UK after falling out with a group of powerful clients, the inquest heard. In the UK he blew the whistle on alleged organised crime in Moscow, and passed details to the Swiss authorities.

He also cooperated with Browder’s Hermitage Capital investment fund to expose a £142m money-laundering operation. In the months before his death he held several meetings with Hermitage representatives.

Browder, a human rights campaigner, accused Surrey police on Wednesday of bungling the case and destroying vital evidence.

“The judge was working on a puzzle with only 20% of the pieces because of the Surrey police incompetence in investigating,” he said after the ruling.

“They lost the stomach samples, lost the computer files. They lost financial records, never treated it as a crime scene. As a result he [the coroner] could not come to any conclusions.”

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Browder added: “Putin cannot be allowed to send his people here and the authorities sweep it under the carpet.”

Perepilichnyy’s widow, who gave evidence last year, rejects Browder’s claim and says her husband died naturally.

Summing up the case on Wednesday, the coroner was critical of the role played by Surrey police.

The coroner noted Perepilichnyy’s death was not initially treated as suspicious as no one had reported any concerns.

As a result, mobile phones were not scrutinised straight away, CCTV footage was not seized and a forensic postmortem was not carried out until 18 days later, Hilliard said.

The coroner added: “Faced with a middle-aged man in jogging clothes at the top of a steep hill, it is unsurprising those officers [at the scene] came to this view.”

Had police looked carefully they could have found an article linking Perepilichnyy to the alleged fraud and that he was “hiding in London”, said Hilliard.

“One significant lost opportunity was the absence of an early forensic postmortem examination.”

DCS John Boshier welcomed the ruling and said Surrey police carried out a “full investigation”. It concluded in 2013 there was no “third party” involvement in Perepilichnyy’s death.

“We accept that some organisational failings were made in the early stages,” Boshier said.

Earlier Hilliard said Hermitage had played a key role in raising concern about Perepilichnyy’s death that but it was outside the scope of the inquest to determine whether or how the fraud using the fund’s companies took place.

The coroner added: “I absolutely cannot ignore the allegations of fraud. As part of the context, I must consider whether he was killed because of his role in giving evidence [of the alleged fraud].

Hilliard said he felt a fraud had been committed.

The inquest heard Perepilichnyy had been a “private banker” for Vladlen Stepanov, the husband of a senior Moscow tax official allegedly involved in the fraud.

By agreeing to be named in a Hermitage complaint against Stepanov to Swiss authorities, Perepilichnyy exposed himself to being investigated and his identity being disclosed to the defendant, who had denied involvement in money laundering.

Perepilichnyy, a married father-of-two, had taken out £3.5m worth of life insurance and applied for another £5m of policies even though he was said to be in good health. His insurer, together with Browder, argued Perepilichnyy was most probably murdered.

Hi widow, Tatiana Perepilichnaya, had said the family came to Britain for the sake of their children’s education and because she felt “at home in London”.

But Hilliard said: “I have also heard evidence Mr Perepilichnyy felt in fear for his life and safety.”

The coroner said he was satisfied that the businessman had lost a “significant amount of weight in 2012 as part of an effort to increase his fitness”.

Perepilichnyy was in Paris with Elmira Medynska, 28, in the two days before his death, the court heard.

He became ill after a meal at the Buddha Bar, which was put down to possible food poisoning.

Hilliard said Medynska had described him as being stressed and appearing to be “somewhere else” when they went shopping during the trip.

The coroner rejected the possibility that the key to Perepilichnyy’s death could lie in secret intelligence. He said there was nothing in a public interest immunity application (PII) that differed from the evidence heard in open court. PII are used by the government to prevent sensitive information that could compromise national security if released into the public domain

Hilliard said: “I’m at the advantage of having seen that material.”