The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office opened on 1er July, an investigation targeting assets acquired in France by Russian oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday, July 25, confirming an information from Parisian.
This investigation was entrusted to the Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Crime (OCRGDF). It comes after the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International (TIF) filed a complaint at the end of May in Paris for, in particular, acts of “laundering” targeting possible ill-gotten gains in France by “businessmen and senior officials close to Vladimir Putin”.
The complaint against X of the NGO aims, in addition to money laundering, the non-justification of resources, TIF thus explaining “exposing the system of capture of the Russian state and national wealth by” relatives of Mr Putin. According to the NGO, which does not give the names of the people targeted for “to avoid reprisals”the system developed “extends its ramifications to France, in the real estate sector in particular, due to a lack of vigilance from intermediaries”.
Hope for “extensive seizure measures”
“The ambition of the sanctions measures against Russia and the first freezing announcements come up against the difficulties of identifying the assets of the people sanctioned. In France, as elsewhere, the pursuit of the assets of the oligarchs and those close to the Russian regime is stalling”had explained, in a press release, TIF, emphasizing the “intermediaries, nominees, shell companies or trusts in tax or judicial havens”.
Through various sources, “We were able to draw up an inventory of the property assets in France of several oligarchs and those close to the Russian regime, identify the chains of properties set up for this purpose and bring together a body of evidence on the illicit origin of the resources that allowed the acquisition of this heritagesaid Patrick Lefas, president of TIF.
“The judicial chapter of the “BMA” [biens mal acquis] Russian oligarchs will open up (…). Freezing measures [d’avoirs] intervened » following the war in Ukraine “will in some cases be a factor in accelerating the investigation and will allow extensive seizure measures and, in the event of a criminal conviction, confiscation”argued M.e William Bourdon, lawyer for TIF.
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the international community has compiled a list of names of Russian oligarchs, whose assets have been frozen. In France, several properties (villas, estates, apartments) have been identified, on the Côte d’Azur, in the Rhône-Alpes region, in Paris but also in the South-West.