MOSCOW, November 27 (RAPSI) – Troubled real estate tycoon Sergei Polonsky filed four motions to initiate criminal cases against several Russian businessmen living in Cambodia, local news agency the Phnom Pehn Post reported Wednesday.

Polonsky was detained in Cambodia by the local police earlier this month at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, which seeks the businessman’s extradition. Polonsky was charged in absentia last July as part of a criminal case involving the embezzlement of over 5.7 billion rubles (over $176 million) from the participants in an up-market cooperative residential construction project in central Moscow.

Presently, Polonsky is being held at Pray Sar Maximum Security Prison on the outskirts of Phnom Pehn. The extradition hearing was scheduled for November 15, but did not take place. Polonsky’s lawyer attributes that to an appeal pending against the tycoon’s arrest.

Polonsky’s Cambodian lawyer Ros Sitha says, that his client accuses several unnamed businessmen of extorting hundreds of millions of dollars. Biu Bun Haing, Posecutor General of the Sianuk province - where the case is being heard - told the newspaper that he was not aware of any claims or motions filed. It is still unclear how these motions will affect the ongoing extradition proceedings.

Attorney Alexander Karabanov told journalists on Monday that the United States has offered Sergei Polonsky political asylum.