Viscount Linley's former business partner wanted in his home country of Russia on fraud charges Sergei Pugachev wanted for questioning by Russian equivalent of FBI Charge relates to the collapsed financial institution, Mezhprombank Lawyers for Mr Pugachev, 50, expected to appeal against the warrant Russian oligarch Sergei Pugachev is wanted in his home country on fraud charges, it was reported The Russian oligarch who was once a business partner of the Queen's nephew Viscount Linley is wanted in his home country on fraud charges, according to reports in Moscow. Sergei Pugachev, who splits his time between luxury homes in London and Monaco, is wanted for questioning by the Investigative Committee, the Russian equivalent of the FBI, on 'large-scale appropriation' relating to the collapsed financial institution, Mezhprombank. The charges could carry a jail sentence of up to ten years. Lawyers for Mr Pugachev, 50, are expected to appeal against the warrant in court in Moscow on Friday. Once labelled the 'cashier to the Kremlin' and formerly seen as close to Vladimir Putin, the businessman is also the lover of glamorous British socialite Alexandra Tolstoy, with whom he has three small children. Reports in Moscow say the arrest warrant was issued in absentia, He is also on Russia's international wanted list. In recent years the tycoon's fortune is reported to have slumped from Â£3 billion to under Â£250 million after he lost key business interests and his Senate seat. A hunting partner of Lord Linley, the Russian injected cash into the royal's furniture business in 2008, at one pointing owning 40 per cent of David Linley Holdings, but left the board in August 2011, with the bespoke furniture and interior design company owing Â£400,000 to Mezhprombank, a sum which is still being repaid. Pugachev - once called the 'perfect partner' by the Viscount - is wanted for questioning over the alleged transfer of unsecured state loans to Luxembourg, say media reports citing law-enforcement sources. 'Sergei Pugachev is being pursued now,' reported Kommersant newspaper, owned by Kremlin-friendly billionaire Alisher Usmanov, also a shareholder of Arsenal FC. The newspaper claimed he faces immediate arrest if he crosses the border into Russia. While Russian police have raided Pugachev's businesses before, this is the first time he has faced an arrest warrant and criminal as well as civil action of the bank's collapse. The Queen's nephew Viscount Linley (pictured) is a former business partner of Sergei Pugachev Tolstoy, 40, daughter of historian Count Nikolai Tolstoy, split from her Cossack horseman husband Shamil Galimzyanov after she became pregnant by married Pugachev in 2008. A Moscow judge this month rejected Galimzyanov's bid to overturn a post-nuptial agreement which gave the Â£250,000 one bedroom flat, where he still lives, to her. She told him that she needed money for her children. 'She hooked a billionaire, and at the same time she is kicking me out of the only apartment I have to live in, and says she has no money or home,' said her ex-husband, who is to appeal the court decision. Last month, a Â£1.3 billion civil claim was lodged with a tribunal in Moscow by a Russian government agency against Pugachev and three senior executives of bankrupt Mezhprombank. His French luxury goods retailer Hediard filed for insolvency in October. Pugachev's lawyers are on record as denying any wrongdoing.