MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th November, 2022) A Paris prosecution office is about to launch an investigation to find out how a daughter of Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian billionaire, has acquired several villas on the French Riviera, Bloomberg reported, citing people from the prosecution division.
According to the media, Junalco, a prosecution unit which is tasked with fighting organized crime, is looking into financial operations of Kerimov's 32-year-old daughter, Gulnara, who allegedly acquired structures owning four luxury mansions at Cap d'Antibes. The purchase of the villas is reportedly connected with a money laundering case filed in Nice in 2017. Back then, Kerimov was accused of tax evasion as well as money laundering and detained in Nice. The case ended with a settlement deal between the local prosecution and a Swiss company, from which Kerimov reportedly rented a villa. The charges against the Russian were dropped.
Junalco's probe, as representatives of the prosecutor's office told Bloomberg, is based on a June report by the French anti-money laundering agency, Tracfin. According to that report, Gulnara Kerimova spent $279 million, which were mostly given by her brother Said, as the French investigative news agency Mediapart specified.
The Paris prosecution office confirmed to Bloomberg that Junalco will thoroughly analyze the information provided by Tracfin.
Nikita Sichov, a Kerimov family lawyer, told the agency that the French authorities are well aware of all the details regarding the ownership of the villas. He added that the Tracfin report "concerns a restructuring carried out with complete transparency."
According to the news agency, the four mansions are not on the French list of Kerimov's frozen properties, despite the fact that he has been under EU sanctions since March, which has created certain hurdles for local investigators to connect the luxury villas to the Russian billionaire.
