More than 141 million euros worth of goods, including luxury properties, jewelry, a helicopter and numerous works of art, including Modigliani and Picasso... This is the result of the Italian police's crackdown who seized the assets of architect Lanfranco Cirillo, in Brescia, Lombardy, according to
Il Corriere della Sera
.
The professional, "
well known"
to the Italian police, is under investigation for tax evasion while he is currently in Moscow.
Among his main achievements, the architect designed a luxurious property of 18,000 m² on the shores of the Black Sea.
But the palace is known more for its owner than for its artistic design, a pastiche of classical architecture with its open galleries, flat roofs and balusters with balusters.
The residence m'as-tu-vu and its park of 7800 hectares, estimated at 1.12 billion euros, would be that of Vladimir Putin, as explained in 2021 Alexeï Navalny, in a video which caused a sensation.
The main opponent of the Kremlin is now in prison.
The Russian president categorically denies any link with the property built by the architect Lanfranco Cirillo and two oligarchs, Alexander Ponomarenko and Arkadi Rotenberg, who are known to be close to the Kremlin.
The Italian architect designed this palace on the shores of the Black Sea, estimated at 1.12 billion euros, whose real owner would be Vladimir Putin.
Navalny.com
If Lanfranco Cirillo is making headlines in Italy today, it's because of a new investigation by the tax services.
The investigations began a few months ago, when the police became aware of
"irregularities"
concerning the helicopter of the 63-year-old architect, which triggered a wider investigation.
The final seizure is
“preventive”
and the items could be returned depending on the final verdict of the court case.
For a few months, Lanfranco Cirillo has been in the crosshairs of the Italian authorities for having failed to pay a tax of 50 million euros.
His villa had already been searched earlier in the year.
Read alsoNavalny reveals in a shock investigation the incredible splendor of "Putin's palace"
Stefano Lojacono, the architect's lawyer, confirmed his client's property had been seized but said he was not guilty of any wrongdoing regarding Italian taxes.
He specifies that the architect has been living in Russia for six years, that he obtained Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin in 2014 and that he therefore does not have to pay taxes in Italy.
Lanfranco Cirillo moved to Russia via Kuwait in the 1990s, where he established relationships with powerful businessmen, including Jordanian-Russian entrepreneur Ziyad Manasir.
Since then, the architect has claimed to have completed projects for 43 Russian billionaires, as well as companies such as Gazprom and Novatek.
