It was allegedly purchased with questionable funds. A villa called “Souzanna”, located in Anglet (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) and belonging to a Russian businessman, companion of Vladimir Putin's ex-wife, was seized as part of an investigation into suspicions of aggravated money laundering, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Wednesday, confirming information from Challenges magazine. The villa, which was purchased for an amount of 5.4 million euros in December 2013, was seized on December 6, 2023, the prosecution said.
The investigations, which were launched in September 2022 under the aegis of the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco), are carried out by the Central Office for the Repression of Serious Financial Delinquency (OCRGDF), he said. -we added. “No person is currently being prosecuted in this case,” underlined the prosecution. The investigation must determine in particular whether the funds which enabled this acquisition have a fraudulent origin or not.
This procedure was initiated following a complaint from the anti-corruption association Transparency International, he recalled. The complaint, filed in 2022 after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, targeted four Russian oligarchs or relatives of Russian oligarchs, according to a source familiar with the matter.
3.5 million euros of renovation
According to Challenges, this villa, also called “Rêverie”, in Art Deco style, belongs to Russian businessman Artur Ocheretny, the new companion of Lioudmila Poutine, the former wife of Vladimir Putin. Renovation work was carried out there for an amount of 3.5 million euros, says the economic media, based on documents from the real estate company.
The businessman acquired other real estate in Europe, notably in Spain and Switzerland for several million euros. “His officially known professional activities do not generate sufficient income to justify such a lifestyle with acquisitions worth several tens of millions of euros,” observed Sara Brimbeuf, head of advocacy at Transparency International.
“It is a property which was occupied by activists who called for its seizure and confiscation for the benefit of the Ukrainian people” and “it belongs to the ex-wife of Vladimir Putin so we arrive in a fairly close circle” of the Russian president, she explained. “It demonstrates that seizures and confiscations remain the most appropriate path to achieve definitive confiscation, or even restitution for the benefit of the Ukrainian people,” added Sara Brimbeuf, recalling that the freeze was a political decision that could be lifted.