Arkady Gontmakher, the owner of Global Fishing in Seattle, Washington was arrested in 2007 in Moscow for money laundering and poaching king crabs from Eastern Russia to sell to the US market. After being acquitted in December 2010, Gontmakher was charged again with money laundering on the same grounds.
After three years in pretrial detention his health has deteriorated, but he fears for his life if he has to have heart surgery in Russia
Who can guarantee that an operation can be carried out successfully under such police pressure?
Gontmakher just wants to be released and go back to the US where his wife lives. He would not continue to work in Russia, Gontmakher said — and he “wouldn’t advise that to anyone, either.”
