cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6779633
The figures are striking and continue to climb. According to a conservative count by Le Monde, based on various sources including data from the Paris prosecutor's office, French authorities have so far seized at least €973 million in potentially ill-gotten assets from oligarchs close to the Moscow regime who may have committed offenses in acquiring such assets.
This outcome reflects a coordinated effort by magistrates since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. At the forefront of this strategy, France's national court for fighting organized crime (JUNALCO) within the Paris prosecutor's office has carried out most of the seizures: "€352.2 million in real estate seizures" and "€580.8 million in bank accounts, receivables and financial products," the Paris prosecutor's office told Le Monde. A significant share of these assets – €532.9 million – was frozen abroad at the request of these Paris magistrates who specialize in combating financial organized crime.
All of these seizures have been challenged before the Paris court of appeal ... If the courts uphold the procedures and a final conviction is handed down, these provisional seizures may become confiscations, with the assets either sold at auction or reassigned by the state for public benefit.
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The seizures carried out by the Paris prosecutor's office relate to several cases, including the confiscation of villas suspected to belong to various individuals: among them the villa of Vladimir Putin's ex-wife in Anglet (southwestern France) valued at nearly €9 million, the assets of Ruslan Goryukhin (more than €70 million), as well as the real estate and financial assets of Alexander Pumpyansky and Nikolai Sarkisov (€59 million). Further investigations are ongoing.
Other seizures were made possible by journalistic investigations. For instance, the Paris prosecutor's office conducted checks following a Le Monde investigation in February 2024 that uncovered suspicious real estate transactions involving the head of Gazprombank, Andrey Akimov, and one of the group's vice presidents, Alexey Matveev, who were the confirmed or suspected owners of luxury villas in France.
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