Real estate of Russia’s richest billionaire arrested in Italy
According to the FT, in the US, no one knows exactly how much real estate is actually owned by Russians, since many of them operated through shell companies. The US Congress passed a law in 2020 requiring limited liability companies and other legal entities to disclose information about their beneficial owners, but the authorities are still finalizing the rules.
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“The Ministry of Justice [США] there are people who are well versed in asset tracking. But it is a difficult, time-consuming job that often requires the cooperation of foreign governments,” explained lawyer Douglas Kellner.
Polish authorities began to seize Russian property in Warsaw
In early March, the US imposed sanctions against 19 Russian businessmen and officials, as well as 47 members of their families. Then the head of Transneft Nikolay Tokarev, businessmen Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, the head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov, the head of VEB.RF Igor Shuvalov, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov, founder of USM Holdings Alisher Usmanov were included in the sanctions list. They fell under blocking sanctions, which imply the freezing of assets in the United States.
A number of European countries also began blocking the assets of Russian businessmen who fell under EU sanctions. Thus, the Italian authorities arrested a complex of buildings on the island of Sardinia, owned by a Russian businessman, the main owner and chairman of the board of directors of Severstal, Alexei Mordashov. The buildings are valued at €105 million ($116.2 million).
In addition, the Italian authorities seized real estate, according to the country’s financial guard, owned by Usmanov and TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov.
Forbes on March 3 announced the confiscation of Usmanov’s yacht Dilbar worth $600 million in Hamburg. However, a representative of the city’s department of economics and innovation declared Der Spiegel, that “not a single yacht has been confiscated” in the port, and the ship is under repair. The publication noted that it is still unlikely to be able to leave the port of Hamburg due to sanctions.
Russian Ambassador to France Alexei Meshkov announced the detention by the French authorities “with little or no explanation” of three Russian ships and one yacht. According to the source Reuters in the Ministry of Finance of the country, we are talking about property associated with “Russian oligarchs” who fell under EU sanctions. The agency’s source also noted that assets in France could be frozen in total from 510 Russian citizens and companies.
In mid-March, pro-Ukrainian activists seized a London mansion allegedly owned by Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska and hung pro-Ukraine banners on the front of the house.