Money laundering at “Tegernsee oligarch” Alisher Usmanow?

Raid targets bank accounts

Created: 2022-11-10 08:01

By: Klaus Wiendl

Billionaire with the best contacts to Putin: Alisher Usmanow (centre).

The picture was taken in 2017. © Mikhail Klimentyev/Imago

“Tegernsee oligarch” Alisher Usmanow is said to have shifted amounts in the millions and concealed the owners.

Financial institutions in Munich and Frankfurt have now been searched.

Rottach-Egern – BKA investigators are now targeting branches of the major Swiss bank UBS in Frankfurt and Munich.

They searched Alisher Usmanov's accounts.

The oligarch is suspected of laundering millions.

The multiple billionaire Usmanow (69) does not make the headlines.

Apparently his hidden treasures are too extensive.

Born in Uzbek, he has been on the EU sanctions list as a Putin confidante since his invasion of Ukraine, as the Kremlin chief's "manager of financial flows".

When the war was looming and Usmanow got wind of it in good time, he fled his second home in Rottach-Egern at the end of February.

Alisher Usmanow: “Tegernsee oligarch” suspected of tax evasion

After the extensive raid on September 21 at Tegernsee, it became known that Usmanow had been staying in his villa at Tegernsee and in Munich for longer periods of time since 2014.

The Munich II public prosecutor accused him of such a long duration that he became liable to pay taxes in Germany.

While documents and valuable works of art such as the alleged Fabergé eggs were apparently found in his Upper Bavarian real estate, Usmanow's private accounts with UBS were in the sights of the investigators on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

A spokesman for the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed the raid to

.

The Frankfurt headquarters were searched by BKA forces, as was the branch in Munich.

The BKA department for serious and organized crime is said to have compiled almost 100 money laundering reports from banks that are said to relate to Usmanov's transactions.

The reports are directed partly against the sanctioned person himself, partly against offshore companies that are connected to Usmanov.

Tegernsee: Raid examines Usmanow bank accounts on suspicion of money laundering

The Tegernsee then comes into play again for offshore companies.

Because all four properties attributed to Usmanow in Rottach-Egern were purchased from letterbox companies on the British tax haven Isle of Man.

All sales contracts from Munich notaries are available to our newspaper.

Usmanov's agents bought under fancy names like "Lake Point Property Holding" or "Tegernsee (IOM) Limited".

Investigators from the “Task Force Investigation Group Ukraine” came across a total of 36 such offshore companies in Germany.

As early as 2017, the Kreissparkasse Miesbach-Tegernsee registered suspicious money movements by Usmanow.

This was followed by a suspected money laundering report to the responsible Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in Cologne.

Apparently with success.

Because there were other suspicious account movements from 2018 with more than two million euros.

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Rottach: "Tegernsee (IOM) Limited" to hide ownership

According to investigators, "Tegernsee (IOM) Limited" should also be involved in the transfers.

With the help of straw men, Usmanov is said to have tried to use the flow of money to move assets and thereby to disguise actual ownership.

In total, Usmanow is said to have evaded taxes totaling 555 million euros because he was taxable in Germany.

Usmanov's spokesman, Grigory Levchenko, firmly denied the allegations to our newspaper.

They are unfounded, false and defamatory.

The entrepreneur is "a law-abiding taxpayer who has paid his taxes in Russia".

Alisher Usmanow has several villas on Tegernsee.

Now the neighbors are speculating: is he still there?

© Westend61/Yuri Kochetkov/IMAGO/dpa (archive images/montage)

At the same time it became known that there were apparently numerous art treasures on Usmanov's luxury yacht "Dilbar", which was arrested by German authorities months ago.

According to research by NDR, WDR and "Süddeutsche Zeitung", investigators came across around 30 paintings by important painters with an estimated value of five million euros.

A work by Mark Chagall is also among them.

Billionaire Alisher Usmanov recently commented on his assets for the first time - and rejected allegations and closer ties to the Kremlin.