A member of the Council Kerimov was detained in Nice

In Nice in the south of France, a member of the Council of Dagestan was detained billionaire Suleiman Kerimov. It is reported by TASS.

Kerimov was detained late in the evening of Monday at the airport of the city and delivered to the police station. There he is still.

Officials of the Russian consulate in the city of Wilfransh-Sur-Mer went to Nice immediately after receiving the news of the detention and met with Kerimov at night. The consular services are stated are in contact with the French authorities, and the senator is "all possible support."

The Foreign Ministry later said that he notified the French authorities of the presence of Karimov as an official official of Russia with an “immunity from forced actions in other states”. As a result of this, the senator has no right to detain, they emphasized on Smolenskaya Square.

As Reuters reports with reference to the prosecutor’s office, Kerimov is accused of evading taxes and laundering money.

On February 15, the French police searched Hier villa in the vicinity of Nice . Law enforcement officers tried to find documents about the real owner of Hier, the area of ​​which is 12 thousand square meters. Nominally, the villa is owned by the Swiss financier Alexander Studhalter, but it was assumed that in reality its owner was Kerimov.

There was also a suspicion that Karimov also belonged to several surrounding villas, also decorated on Studhalter.

As expected, these objects were purchased at a low value with the transfer of part of the money to sellers bypassing the tax authorities of France.

51-year-old Kerimov has been a member of the Council since 2008; Before that, he was a deputy of the State Duma from the LDPR. According to media reports, the Kerimov family belongs to the company Polyus Gold and the Sinema-Park network of cinemas. He also controls the financial and industrial group "Nafta-Moscow". In addition, the businessman previously owned the Uralkali shares, VTB and the peak group, and in 2011-2016 he owned the Anji Makhachkala football club.

In the Forbes rating in 2016, Kerimov took 45th place. His assets were estimated at 1.6 billion dollars.