Russian supergrass death in UK was 'not suspicious'

Alexander Perepilichnyy case to referred coroner despite failure to establish how he died outside his Surrey home

The death of a Russian supergrass who was a key witness in a multimillion-pound international fraud investigation is not suspicious, police said on Friday.

Alexander Perepilichnyy, 44, was found collapsed outside his home in Weybridge, Surrey, on 10 November last year, sparking a major police investigation over fears he had been poisoned.

Perepilichnyy was involved in a fraud case involving the theft of around £140m in tax revenue from the Russian government at the time of his death.

Surrey police said the matter has now been formally passed to the coroner and an inquest will be held after finding no evidence of foul play. This was despite two postmortem examinations carried out in November failing to establish a cause of death.

Toxicology samples were also taken from both postmortems but the results have not been released.

The senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Ian Pollard, from the Surrey and Sussex major crime team, said: "I am satisfied that following extensive inquiries, including a postmortem examination carried out by a Home Office pathologist, and a full and detailed range of toxicology tests, there is no evidence to suggest that there was any third party involvement in Mr Perepilichnyy's death."

Pollard added: "This was a tragic and sudden death which attracted intense media speculation. Mr Perepilichnyy's family has had to endure this media attention at the same time as coping with the loss of a loved one, and our thoughts remain with them at this time."

Perepilichnyy was helping Swiss authorities over the alleged fraud when he died. He had lived in the UK for three years and was believed to be in good health.

One theory was that he could have been poisoned in a similar fashion to Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB agent who died in London in 2006 after being contaminated with radioactive Polonium 210.