William Molinié, edited by Laura Laplaud
modified to
7:31 a.m., July 26, 2022
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office is opening an investigation into the assets acquired by Russian oligarchs in France. Five months after the start of the war in Ukraine, French justice will therefore be interested in the conditions under which relatives of Vladimir Putin bought real estate in several regions of France.
Yachts, luxury villas on the Côte d’Azur, castles, vineyards. How did the Russian oligarchs invest in France? This is the question that will try to answer the national financial prosecutor’s office which has opened an investigation. Justice will examine under what conditions certain relatives of Vladimir Putin were able to accumulate so much property in France.
An investigation opened since July 1
The investigation was opened on July 1. It follows a complaint filed by the NGO Transparency International France, which specializes in the fight against corruption. The investigations are aimed at acts of money laundering in an organized gang, embezzlement of public funds and aggravated tax evasion.
Justice suspects billionaires close to the Kremlin of having bought luxury villas and apartments under dubious conditions and of having thus amassed a jackpot of several tens of millions of euros in the years 2000 and 2010.
The real estate that is of interest to justice is on the Basque Coast, the Côte d’Azur, the Paris region or even the ski resorts in the Alps. The investigation was entrusted to the Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Crime (OCRGDF), which specializes in these cases of ill-gotten gains. These are the same investigators who have already worked on several African leaders whose heritage in France has been built over the years through the embezzlement of public funds and corruption.