The troubles continue for Alexei Kuzmitchev. After two days in police custody, the Russian oligarch was presented on Wednesday 1er November to an investigating judge from the financial division of the Paris judicial court and indicted “on charges of laundering, aggravated tax fraud, presumption of laundering and hidden work in an organized gang”, according to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). Despite the prosecutor’s request for detention, he emerged free from the court, under judicial supervision, with the obligation to pay bail of 8 million euros. He is also prohibited from leaving France.
The police searched Monday morning the villa in Saint-Tropez (Var) where Alexei Kuzmitchev was, and his private mansion in Paris. These operations mobilized forty elite police officers from the Raid and the BRI, responsible for securing the scene.
According to our information, the PNF investigation into tax fraud laundering began in February 2023. “The suspected fraud is linked to the ownership of real estate assets in France and to undeclared income”specifies a judicial source at World. This lead was fueled by a report from Tracfin, Bercy’s financial intelligence service, during the summer of 2022.
Kremlin support
Justice is also seeking to know whether Mr. Kuzmitchev did not commit a violation of European sanctions adopted against him on March 15, 2022, in reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If the simple presence of the businessman in France could constitute an offense severely punished by the customs code, “the possible characterization of these offenses requires additional investigative actions”, tempers the judicial source. The businessman’s entourage, for their part, disputes any offense and explains that he was already on French territory at the time of his placement under sanctions.
The case, entrusted to police officers from the National Brigade for the Repression of Tax Delinquency (BNRDF), is now continuing as part of a judicial investigation under the responsibility of an investigating magistrate. Alexei Kuzmichev, co-shareholder of the Alfa Group consortium, which owns Alfa Bank, is considered by the European authorities as “one of the most influential people in Russia”whose “links with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, are well established”.
The Kremlin said it was ready, Wednesday 1er November, at “protect rights” of the Russian businessman after his arrest. “We must be informed about the detention of a citizen of the Russian Federation through our diplomatic missiondeclared the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, quoted by AFP. After receiving the information, and if the detainee wishes, we will of course help protect his rights as a Russian citizen. »