Billionaire Berezovsky denies Tevez link as Joorabchian faces arrest

The high-profile Iranian born businessman was at the Prime Minister's Labour fundraiser at Wembley Stadium last night as Judge Fausto Martin de Sanctis ordered the shock action.

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The Brazilian authorities froze the bank accounts of football team Corinthians and forwarded warrants to Interpol to carry out the overseas arrests of Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, Joorabchian and Nojan Bedroud.

Berezovsky is an investor in the sports management group Media Sports Investments, which was run in Brazil by Joorabchian.

In 2004, Joorabchian signed a 10-year partnership with Corinthians wiping out debts of £115million. Among those bought with MSI money were Tevez and Javier Mascherano.

Brazilian courts have been investigating why none of the money involved in buying the players passed through the country amid suspicions of money laundering.

Corinthians and MSI have denied the charges and said they obeyed all laws.

Joorabchian today said the investigation had involved numerous individuals at Corinthinas including the president and other club officials and had been 'rumbling on for some time'.

In a statement he insisted he had done 'nothing untoward'.

He said: "The investigation has been provoked by a desire of a small group of individuals in Brazil to g ain control of Corinthians.

"All payments made to Corinthians were cleared through and approved by the Brazilian Central Bank.

"My Brazilian lawyers have been instructed urgently to apply in Brazil for my removal from this matter and I hope it will be resolved very quickly."

Berezovsky has denied having "any dealings connected to Tevez" or any involvement in money-laundering. He was adamant the warrant was 'an extension of the Kremlin's politicised campaign against him'.

Joorabchian, 36, is in the middle of a wrangle over the proposed transfer of Tevez to Manchester United, but he is confident he is on sound legal footing to push the deal through.

He said: "The administrative issues will be settled in the next few days. We don't see any problems. United are confident they will have him registered next week. Carlos will come on Tuesday, have a medical on Wednesday and hopefully we will have administrative issues sorted. Personal terms have all been agreed."

But the deal must still be approved by the Premier League. A spokesman said: "Any deal for Tevez has to be done directly with West Ham. They hold the registration."

United have agreed an initial loan deal for Tevez with the option of a permanent transfer, which could be worth more than £30m.

The Premier League insist West Ham must receive most of the fee because they were allowed to keep playing Tevez last season after assuring the league all third-party clauses in the striker's contract had been severed.