MOSCOW, September 12 (RAPSI) - Real estate tycoon Sergei Polonsky, who is wanted in Russia for embezzlement, was granted Cambodian citizenship, his attorney Diana Tatosova told RAPSI on Thursday.

"I was told that Polonsky was granted Cambodian citizenship, and a passport was issued to him," - attoney said, refusing to cite the source of the information.

In Summer, Polonsky tried to apply for Israeli citizenship during his brief stay there after being released from Cabodian prison where he had been placed following an alleged attack on a Cambodian boat crew during the New Year celebrations. In August he left Israel "out of fears for his safety" and returned to his private island in Cambodia.

Polonsky, the former head of the Mirax Group developing company, 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. The development project has come to be known as the Kutuzovskaya Miliya case.

More than 80 people lost money because of Polonsky's actions in the Kutuzovskaya Miliya case, the Interior Ministry reported. Russian police said on August 2 that the Israeli authorities had informed them that Polonsky was in Israel on a tourist visa valid until September 27.