First Izvestia Asset Seized after Libel Award: a Typewriter
The lawyer for a California businessman who won a $413,000 libel suit against the Soviet Union began seizing Soviet assets today after negotiations to settle the case failed.
The first item seized by Gerald Kroll was a Russian-language typewriter worth about $500.
Kroll, who represents Palo Alto businessman Raphael Gregorian, said he and U.S. marshals took the typewriter from the apartment of Izvestia correspondent Leonid Kuryavin.
“We also inventoried everything in the apartment that belongs to Izvestia,” Kroll said. “There is a nice color TV and some office equipment worth a few thousand dollars. We will come back with a truck tomorrow and pick it up.”
Gregorian, who sold medical supplies in the Soviet Union for 15 years, was ousted in 1984, and Izvestia published an article branding him a spy.
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