Fugitive ex-official Boris Avagyan found dead in St. Petersburg

Boris Avagyan, a former senior official of Rosreestr and Rosimushchestvo, has been found dead inside the Armenian Consulate in St. Petersburg, according to the Russian media.

His body was found in a restroom of the diplomatic mission on Wednesday. Preliminary reports suggest suicide, though the circumstances are still being investigated.

Avagyan, 43, previously headed regional divisions of Rosimushchestvo in the Leningrad region and Rosreestr in St. Petersburg, overseeing land and property policy. In 2009, he co-founded a customs brokerage firm at the Port of St. Petersburg.

Russian authorities accused the Armenian citizen of evading more than 4.2 billion rubles in customs payments as part of an organized group. On September 23, during a hearing at the Kronstadt court on possible pre-trial detention, Avagyan escaped and was last seen entering the Armenian Consulate on Vasilyevsky Island.