German police on Wednesday raided several properties of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, on suspicion of money laundering and violating sanctions imposed by the European Union.
A unit of more than 250 police officers searched several of the tycoon’s properties across Germany, including a town in Lake Tegernsee, according to a statement from the Bavarian state prosecutor.
Authorities also searched Usmanov’s properties in Baden-Württemberg, in southern Germany, and in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, in the north.
The Bavarian prosecutor’s statement said the searches were directed at a Russian national on the European Union’s sanctions list, announced shortly after the start of the war. According to The Guardian, the German newspaper Der Spiegel was able to confirm that the man in question is Usmanov.
EU announces closure of Russian banks to the SWIFT system, “paralyzes” central bank and freezes assets of oligarchs
The oligarch is suspected of having violated the sanctionsby continuing to make payments to a security company to protect their property, thereby violating the asset freeze.
The public prosecutor of the German financial capital, Frankfurt, whose authorities were also involved in the raids, said that Usmanov was being investigated on suspicion of money laundering, related to transfers of money to accounts worth several million euros. offshore.
The same source also told The Guardian that the investigations originated in the filtration of the Panama Papers, in which the tycoon was involved.
12 questions to unravel the case of the Panama Papers
Usmanov, 71, was one of the oligarchs targeted by Brussels sanctions at the start of the war. Considered one of the men closest to Vladimir Putin, He has a net worth of $14.7 billion.. With connections to the UK, for a few years he was considered the richest person in the country. Between 2007 and 2018 he was the majority shareholder of the English soccer club Arsenal.
The authorities suspect that Usmanov, who lived in the municipality of Tegernesse until the beginning of this year, owes the German state more than 500 million euros in taxes.
His current whereabouts are unknown, but he is believed to have fled to Uzebekistan (where he was born in the former Soviet Union), shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022.
Source: Observadora
