Mystery of son's Moscow death in Ferrari crash

THE Gutseriev affair took on an air of mystery when his son Chingiskhan, or Chingis, died in a car crash.

His Ferrari was wrecked as he drove through Moscow a few days after the arrest warrant for his father was issued.

Chingis, 23, had been working in a bank owned by his family. He had many friends and contacts in Britain. He was educated at Harrow and then Warwick University and was being groomed to take over from his father in the oil business.

The circumstances surrounding his death have never been explained. The Moscow papers tried to investigate but both the police and ambulance service denied all knowledge of it. They said no record of any such crash existed. It emerged, however, that Chingis had been taken to hospital where he died of brain injuries.

Kommersant, the newspaper owned by Alisher Usmanov, a major shareholder in Arsenal Football Club, described the affair as "mysterious", but while many have drawn their own conclusions, no evidence to prove foul play has yet been discovered.

According to one report in Moscow, Chingis's family called in private investigators who carried out forensic tests.

They concluded it was "not an accident", but they were unable to take their investigation further. Chingis was buried in Baku, Azerbaijan, where his family have links.