News

Emanuel Zeltser, a New York-based anti-money laundering attorney, was released from a Belarusian prison Tuesday after serving nearly a third of a three-year sentence for industrial espionage, according to media reports. Belarusian authorities arrested Zeltser on March 12, 2008, claiming he had entered the country with forged documents relating to the disputed will of Badri Patarkatsishvili, a Georgian billionaire. Belarus later said that Zeltser had been found with narcotics, an allegation denied by his family members, who claimed the drugs were to treat diabetes, arthritis and gout. The government ultimately dropped the narcotics charges against Zeltser but moved him to...