MOSCOW, August 2 (RAPSI) – Businessman Sergei Polonsky, wanted in Russia on fraud charges, has filed a claim with the Investigative Committee saying employees of his company have been receiving threats, RIA Novosti reports Friday. 

“Starting with the decision to sell the business and even now I receive complaints from the employees who are being bullied and pressured by unidentified persons,” the businessman posted on his Facebook account.

Alexei Alyakin who owns the Reinvest company was supposed to buy Polonsky’s Potok company, but after the deal failed it was reported that businessman Roman Trotsenko and lawyer Aleksander Dobrovinsky might be interested in Potok. 

Polonsky added that at least 12 employees have suffered while he doesn’t feel safe himself. That’s why Polonsky asks the Investigative Committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin to inspect the allegations and pursue a criminal case.   

Polonsky was charged in absentia last month as part of a criminal case involving the embezzlement of over 5.7 billion rubles ($176.2 million) from the participants in an up market cooperative residential construction project in Moscow.

Russia’s Interior Ministry says the businessman is hiding from investigators. "If Polonsky fails to show himself in Russia by the end of July and continues to hide from the investigation, the Interior Ministry's Investigative Department will request the court to issue a warrant for arrest in absentia. If the court grants the request, we will put Polonsky on the international wanted list," a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti earlier.

Russia isn’t the only place where Polonsky has recently found himself in a bit of hot water. Polonsky was arrested with two Russian friends in Cambodia in December 2012 for allegedly attacking the six-person crew of a boat. Polonsky was released in April, but ordered not to leave the country. In June a British tabloid newspaper reported that he was at a luxury apartment in Israel.

Polonsky’s lawyer said that the Cambodian authorities had allowed Polonsky to travel to Israel for medical treatment.

This week a post appeared on Polonsky’s Facebook account confirming the businessman is in  Israel at the moment where he is seeking citizenship. The message also reads that Polonsky is “not seeking to evade” justice, he is simply not able to leave Israel.