Bought from mailboxes and offshore companies: investigators want to confiscate oligarch villas on Lake Tegernsee

Created: 2022-04-18Updated: 2022-04-18, 8:07 p.m

Owned by Russian oligarchs: Alisher Usmanov owns the left house and Ivan Pavlovich Shabalov the right.

(merkur.de montage) © Klaus Wiendl

Oligarchs have amassed real estate on Lake Tegernsee through straw men and mailbox companies.

BKA investigators hope that they can confiscate their assets.

Rottach-Egern/Tegernsee

– Suddenly the 68-year-old was in a hurry.

When Putin's troops invaded Ukraine on February 24 and demonstrators marched in Rottach-Egern demanding "Stop Putin", his confidante Alisher Usmanow hastily fled the country.

On February 28th, according to neighbors of one of his properties, he "packed his bags straight away" and "went away" with his entourage.

The multiple billionaire and oligarch knew what he was threatened with: being listed in the EU sanctions list, which promptly followed a day later.

The Uzbek-born landed on it, also with a Russian passport, at number 673. Expelled as a "Kremlin-friendly oligarch who has particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin." been entrusted".

And "Dmitry Medvedev", ex-president and now Putin's gun wrench, "had personally been able to use luxurious properties controlled by Alisher Usmanov," according to the public EU tender.

Tegernsee: Countless villas have been purchased by mailbox and offshore companies

Multi-entrepreneur Usmanow, valued at 16 billion euros according to Forbes, is a professional when it comes to real estate and financial flows.

Countless villas, whether in Sardinia, in Italy, London and on Lake Tegernsee, were bought and cleverly disguised through a network of letterbox and offshore companies.

This also applies to his four properties in the prime location of Rottach-Egern.

Like a string of pearls, Usmanow's million-euro investments are lined up on the lake shore.

According to the present purchase contracts, they all have one thing in common: they were acquired by British straw men through Munich notaries for three shell companies on the tax haven of the Isle of Man.

Tegernsee: Can the investigators confiscate Usmanow's villa in Rottach-Egern?

Usmanov's henchmen started things off in June 2011. Brett Sinclair A. and Stephen Paul C. acquired the oligarch's main house for 7.8 million euros.

A "Tegernsee (IOM) Limited" is still entered in the land register. The abbreviation IOM stands for Isle Of Man.

But this purchase contract contains a passage that could enable the "Task Force Investigation Group Ukraine" recently set up by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) to confiscate the oligarch's villas in Rottach.

Alisher Usmanow bought real estate in Rottach-Egern for many millions, including this villa.

© Klaus Wiendl

Because the investigators must be able to prove to him that he is the "beneficial owner" of this property in the notary contract.

And they can in this specific case, as the officials confirm.

Because in the concession contract, the buyer must undertake to name a natural person as the owner who is also the beneficial owner of the purchase contract.

Alisher Usmanov, Sivtsev Vrazhek Street, Flat 15, Moscow, is named, as well as the address of the domicile in Rottach-Egern.

Usmanow: Walks on Tegernsee accompanied by up to five bodyguards

It was the same frontmen of Usmanow who acquired the semi-detached house just a stone’s throw from the main house for a “Lakeview Property Holding Limited” and had it transferred to the well-known “Tegernsee (IOM) Limited” by a notary in August 2018 for two million euros: by, so to speak the left into the right pocket.

For investigators, this is an indication that cash flows to different accounts of the three reported offshore companies for Tegernseer Immobilien should be concealed.

Some also speak of money laundering.

Part of Usmanov's bodyguards were housed in the semi-detached house.

The other part of the up to 30-strong convoy moved into quarters not far away, in a rented condominium.

Even if it is a problem for some neighbors to have security guards constantly coming and going in a small residential complex, many residents have nothing but good things to say about Usmanov, a man close to Putin.

"He was very reserved and didn't bother.

What was delivered always came from Munich.” But Usmanow was never seen with his family, whether in summer or winter, despite the “Christmas lights”.

According to the neighbors, the "fat man" was accompanied by up to five bodyguards on his walks on the lake shore.

(Our Tegernsee newsletter keeps you regularly informed about all the important stories from your region. Register here.)

He may also have paid an occasional visit to his third property – again just a few minutes away.

In December 2015, he acquired it with 2,346 square meters of land via a "Lake View Property Holding" for 7.2 million euros from a Salzburg university professor.

According to reports, the expansive villa serves as Usmanow's entourage.

Well-known architect from Rottach realizes new building for Usmanow at Tegernsee

A year later, in November 2016, the oligarch invested in another property.

This time again at the Schorn.

A man from Cologne sold him his 2,303 square meters for 6.2 million euros.

He had the old building torn down, and a well-known Rottach architect provided him with a new building in the style of his nearby main building.

Despite sanctions, however, the stately villa is still being completed.

The invoices from the executing companies are likely to be addressed to the third letterbox company: Lake Point Property Holding Limited, 26 Victoria Street Douglas, Isle of Man.

Huge network of straw men makes investigations against Usmanov more difficult

Overall, the BKA investigators came across 36 offshore companies and 90 suspected money laundering reports in Germany alone in their data analysis on Usmanov, as the media are now reporting.

According to investigators, Usmanov's trust is said to have about five levels, and it is only on the bottom one that one would come across his name.

Before that, a huge network of straw men from his environment emerges, which makes the hunt for oligarchs like Usmanov much more difficult.

After the sanctions, traveling should also become difficult for Usmanov.

As reported, his 600 million luxury yacht "Dilbar" is currently in the Hamburg shipyard Blohm + Voss in Kiel, and in the air he has to do without his Airbus 340-313, with which he managed to escape from Munich to Tashkent.

His wide-body jet, designated M-IABU (IABU stands for "I am Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov"), has just had its registration revoked by the Isle of Man, the island's chief of civil aviation authority has confirmed.

Second oligarch Ivan Pavlovich Shabalov acquired real estate in the city of Tegernsee

Back to the Tegernsee.

Another oligarch has his latifundia in the municipality of the same name: Ivan Pavlovich Shabalov, born in Uzbekistan like Usmanov, is a Russian pipeline magnate who also supplied Gazprom with the desired pipelines for the Nord Stream-2 project, which has since been stopped.

His client was Gazprom boss Alexej Miller, who is on the sanctions list.

Shabalov, born in 1959, acquired his stately villa in 2007 through his Luxburg GmbH, which was then based in Munich.

He paid 6.35 million euros for the 8005 square meters.

In 2014, the villa was transferred to a Luxburg GbR in Gelsenkirchen, which he and his wife Liudmila Gai own.

Both state their place of residence as Lugano in Switzerland.

Since May 2019, Shabalov's daughter Anna Shabalova has been the owner.

Tegernsee: “Golden passports” from the oligarchs make money laundering easier

Shabalov also acquired the second property in the immediate vicinity with 1200 square meters of land in 2007, this time for only 700,000 euros, but for a Luxburg GmbH in Gelsenkirchen.

In December 2019, the property was passed on to son Pavel, who lives in Moscow, for 2.76 million euros.

According to the contract, half of the purchase price went to two separate accounts held by the couple Shabalov and Gai at the Russian Sberbank, which is now also on the sanctions list.

However, the Shabalovs state that they live in Via Giuseppe Mazzini in Lugano in Ticino, although both are said to have Cypriot passports.

These purchased "golden passports" are very typical of money laundering, say investigators from the task force.

They also spotted Shabalov's yacht "Soaring", flying the flag of Cyprus.

The oligarch Ivan Pavlovich Shabalov owns, among other things, this property in Tegernsee.

Unlike Usmanov, he is not on the EU sanctions list.

© Klaus Wiendl

The local CSU member of the Bundestag, Alexander Radwan, is also wondering why Shabalov is not yet on the sanctions list.

"He (Shabalov) would probably have also bought real estate in Upper Bavaria and at least been in contact with other sanctioned persons in the past," Radwan wrote to Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at the end of March.

And he goes on to ask: “Is the federal government currently creating any legal bases not only to freeze assets, but also to be able to confiscate them?

If yes how?

If not, why not?"

With Usmanov it is not an easy task for hunters of Russian treasures.

He is said to have transferred his "Sisters Trust" to his sister Gulbahor Ismailova in 2017 and in turn to her sister Saodat Narzieva as the beneficial owner of up to 27 Swiss accounts.

But now both are also on the sanctions list.

Therefore, the BKA hopes to get at least the Tegernsee oligarch properties via the land registers in Miesbach.

All news and stories from Bavaria can now also be found on our brand new Facebook page Merkur Bayern.