Estimated at 23 million euros, it is located in one of the most popular spots on the Côte d’Azur. In Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, near Nice, the very opulent villa of a Russian oligarch placed under sanctions, as part of the measures taken since the start of the war in Ukraine, was seized as part of a penal procedure. And this is a first in France, according to information published by The world.
The luxurious residence would thus have been seized in October 2022 at the request of the magistrates of the National Jurisdiction in charge of the fight against organized crime (Junalco), specifies the daily. And it is Viktor Rachnikov, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, majority shareholder of one of the largest steel producers in Russia, who would be the owner. Contacted by 20 minutes, the Paris prosecutor’s office did not wish to comment “in view of the ongoing investigations”. Nineteen criminal investigations would be opened against Russian businessmen, reports thus The world.
Concerning the villa of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Junalco would have acted just in time, at the time of its sale after the beginning of the war, by disentangling a complex financial arrangement. The house actually belonged to a Russian citizen “suspected of being Viktor Rachnikov’s straw man” and who had acquired it through a Swiss company itself owned by a Panamanian structure, specifies the press title.