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Boris Berezovsky spoke of suicide, inquest told Boris Berezovsky spoke of suicide, inquest told
(about 1 hour later)
Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky was left a broken man and spoke of killing himself after losing a multibillion-pound legal battle with Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, an inquest has heard. The Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky became deeply depressed and suicidal after losing a multimillion pound court battle with the Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, an inquest has heard.
The tycoon's body was discovered slumped on the floor by his bodyguard at his ex-wife's luxury property in Ascot, Berkshire, on 23 March last year. He asked his son Artem how he could choke himself to death and asked his bodyguard: "Should I jump or should I cut my vein?'
Berezovsky's death came months after his lengthy private litigation case with r Abramovich ended in defeat – costing him millions of pounds and altering his personality, the hearing was told. Once considered to be Russia's second-richest man, Berezovsky was facing an almost-penniless future after losing his London high court fight with Abramovich over the rightful ownership of the oil group Sibneft. He not only lost the £3bn damages claim, he was also left with an estimated £100m legal bill.
Avi Navama, Berezovsky's bodyguard of six years, told the inquest at Windsor Guildhall that he was "very low" in the last four months of his life but seemed different in the two days before he died. "He told me he wasn't a billionaire," his bodyguard, Avi Navama, told the inquest at Windsor. "He said was the poorest man in the world."
Navama said that the night before he died, Berezovsky "looked at me with very low, tired eyes. Like he doesn't know what to do." Not only had Berezovsky lost billions as a result of the 2012 court case, the inquest heard, he had also lost the power and influence that they had brought, and this left him deeply despondent.
He said that later that night he collected Berezovsky's son, Gleb, from school and got a text from his boss thanking him, which he thought was strange. Berezovsky, 67, was found dead in March last year on the floor of the bathroom of Titness Park, his ex-wife Galina's house near Ascot, Berkshire, at which he had been staying since the court case.
Police confirmed the Russian exile's cause of death was consistent with hanging. Navama told the inquest how he kicked down the bathroom door when he realised his employer had locked himself inside. Inside he found Berezovsky's body with a piece of the businessman's favourite black scarf around his neck.
Navama's wife, Zoe Watson, also described changes in Berezovsky's behaviour. Navama agreed with the Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford that it was clearly Berezovsky's body he had found, and that reports that the tycoon had faked his own death were "frankly preposterous".
In a witness statement read before the court, Watson said: "The Mr Berezovsky (I) knew was a dynamic, larger than life personality who became someone who withdrew into himself and became a shell of the man (I) once knew." Navama, an Israeli former special forces soldier who lived alongside Berezovsky for six years, said his employer talked continuously of taking his own life. "He talked with me about it all the time, and not only with me but with a lot of people," he said. On one occasion he had stood with a steak knife in his hand demanding to know: "Where should I cut?" Navama added.
She said the former Kremlin insider had been a "welcoming, very generous and kind" man before the court case, which found in favour of Abramovich over a £3bn debt dispute. The tycoon had asked both Artem and himself to demonstrate how he could choke himself. "I showed him… but only to put him off," he said.
She said that, following the case, employees at the Ascot estate became concerned about the impact the case would have on them, speaking of concerns for their jobs in the wake of the legal battle's crippling effect on Berezovsky's fortune. Navama said the loss of the court battle with his countryman Abramovich was clearly "the trigger of the change" in his employer's psychological state. "Before the verdict he was a very active person. He didn't sleep much. After the verdict he was depressed. His routine changed completely, he stayed most of the time in his room," he said.
In her statement, Watson said her concerns deepened on a trip with her husband and his employer to Israel. TShe told the hearing: "Mr Berezovsky regularly went to his room. His head was in his hands. He was pale and shaking. He looked broken. I saw he was taking strong anti-depressant medicine. He was having panic attacks and heart palpitations." Berezovsky would emerge from his bedroom for breakfast, return to his room and not emerge again until mid afternoon, Navama said. "I was concerned – I didn't feel comfortable to leave him alone."
Watson said she had become aware Berezovsky, 67, had discussed suicide with one of his children at that time. She said: "He asked about how to do it." Berezovsky had amassed a fortune through the accumulation of privatised state assets following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He left Russia and settled in Britain in 2000 after falling out with Vladimir Putin, a man whose rise to power he had done much to assist, and later faced a number of assassination plots.
Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford acknowledged that the witness had only met her husband's employer about eight times, and added: "Her knowledge of Mr Berezovsky is very limited but it is interesting to note the change of personality." One man who occasionally worked for him, the former KGB bodyguard Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned with polonium in London in November 2006: a method of killing that led British intelligence officers to assume it was state-sponsored.
The coroner opened the hearing by stating he discounted theories in some press reports that Berezovsky had faked his own death. After Berezovsky's death, a number of relatives and friends insisted he would not have taken his own life, and maintained that his death was suspicious.
Navama said he phoned an ambulance at about 3pm on 23 March after getting no response from his employer all day. The house was checked for chemical and radiological elements after his death, but no trace was found.
The bodyguard said he had concerns that Berezovsky might have harmed himself based on previous talk of suicide, and said he wanted a member of the emergency services with him if he was to make the grim discovery. The coroner said relatives of the tycoon would say that he had recovered from his depression at the time of his death. This was disputed by Navama, however, who saw him each day and who said that any apparent recovery was usually short-lived. The night before his death, he had had "very low, tired eyes", he said.
He told the hearing: "I worked with him for more than six years – I spent more time with him than my wife. I considered him family. Berezovsky is thought to have been dead for up to 18 hours by the time his body was found. Death was caused by hanging, according to a postmortem examination carried out after his death. The body was identified by his daughter from his first marriage, Elizaveta Berezovskaya.
"He had said, 'Should I jump or should I cut my veins?' When he talked (like this) I was very worried to see him in this state. "I had a very bad feeling that he might have killed himself." The inquest is being formally held in the name of Platon Elenin, which Berezovsy had adopted when provided with UK travel documents in 2003.
The inquest continues. The hearing continues.
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