The arrest of Suleiman Kerimov in Nice. Main

The Russian senator was detained as part of the investigation of a major case to launder money and tax evasion

Russian senator and billionaire Suleiman Kerimov was detained at 23:20 on Monday, November 20, at Nice Airport, when he went down from the ladder of a private plane. He was delivered to the building of the Central Commissariat of the Nice Police on GIIIOM Apolliner Street.

The press service of the Russian Embassy in France, TASS, reported that the employees of the Chancellery of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in the city of Vilfransh-Sur-Mer arrived at the airport and “achieved a meeting with Kerimov” at half a night.

As of noon in Wednesday, November 22, he still remained under a preliminary imprisonment. Presumably, today the court will make a decision on the measure of suppression for Kerimov.

According to the local publication Nice Matin, the investigative judge Alexander Julien wants to hear Kerimov as part of the investigation of a large case to launder money and evasion of taxes, which is carried out on the Cote d'Azur over the past months.

The investigation is trying to prove that the amounts indicated in the documents for the purchase of real estate (presumably “for Kerimov”) were underestimated, as well as the fact that illegal schemes were used at the same time - all this could significantly reduce the amount of taxes paid to the budget.

According to the newspaper, this story began to unwind in 2015, when the police who were monitoring one of the criminal authorities in the case of smuggling were spotted by one of Nice restaurants a certain woman who brought cash to pay off the employees. Then the investigators found out that this woman is the secretary of the lawyer bureau Stefan Kyaverini. This lawyer, whose office is in Antibe - a specialist in tax law, more precisely, according to Nice Matin, a specialist "to create offshore schemes with the only goal - the departure of French taxes."

It was Kyaverini, probably, and participated in the sale of Antibe Hier ("Yesterday") with an area of ​​12,000 square meters located on Cape. The official “Transaction amount: 35 million euros”, but about 90 million euros, were likely to be parallel to the Swiss accounts of the seller ”(this spring, the media called a different amount: 61 million). The official buyer of the villa was the Swiss entrepreneur Alexander Studhaler, but “investigators are convinced” that he is a dummy person “behind which Suleiman Kerimov may be hidden”. They are also trying to prove that the real value of the villa was underestimated about 4 times.

In March, Nice Matin reported that “during listening to telephone conversations”, the police found out that the real purchase cost is 127 million.

According to the newspaper, the Russian senator bought at Cape Antib (built -up villas available only to the richest people of the planet) several real estate objects with a total value of 500 million euros.

Earlier, the French media reported that we can, presumably, about Medy Roc villas with a park of 12,000 square meters, Lexa, Fiorella and the land on which the Pellerin Villa used to be.

On February 15, 2017, several dozen police officers searched Hier Villa. During the search, as Nice Matin reported, the police discovered a receipt of 580,000 euros. The nominal owner of Villa Studhalter then refused to comment on the press, but his representative told reporters that "since Mr. Studhalter invests in the development of real estate on Kap'yantib, he always pays taxes regularly." Studhalter, presumably, “belong” to the above objects.

“Suleiman Kerimov is not the owner of real estate mentioned in the publications, or other real estate outside the Russian Federation,” the assistant to the Russian senator Alexei Krasovsky told the Interfax agency.

In the summer of 2017, Judge Alexander Julien, along with a group of investigators, went to Switzerland to search for proof of building financial schemes, which, in their opinion, could be used when buying Hier villa and other real estate luxury objects at Cape Antibe.

In September 2017, it became known that the same summer the court arrested the Hier villa. Then, in September, the Nice Matin newspaper said that some “confidential banking documents” were at the disposal of the editorial office, according to which the real owner of the Swiru Group holding, through which the Hier Villa (“and other real estate objects”) was not the Swiss Studhalter, but the “Rypery” Suleiman Kerimov. ”

The response to this publication was then sent by Studhalter himself, who stated that he was the “only owner and beneficiary” of the Swiss company Swiru Holding AG, and therefore real estate that it owns through its branches. ” “As a result, Mr. Suleiman Kerimov, with whom I have been maintaining business and friendly relations for many years, is neither the owner nor the beneficiary of the Hier Villa.” Studhalter said that the villa was bought in 2008 for 35 million euros, and “a few weeks before the purchase” “An independent legal examination rated it at 31, 05 million”.

The Swiss also announced that he had already appealed the court decision on the arrest of the villa, and now his request is under consideration by the Court of Appeal in the ex-en-production.

Kerimov himself, according to the Russia 24 television channel, did not admit his guilt during the interrogation of investigators in Nice. “Information was brought to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France and the Embassy that Suleiman Kerimov is a member of the Council of the Federal Security Service of Russia, is one of the official officials of the country and in this capacity has immunity from forced actions in other states,” the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry told Interfax.

And here is the answer of the official representative of the Foreign Ministry of France, which was published on the morning of November 22: “Mr. Suleiman Kerimov, as a representative of a foreign state, has immunity from foreign criminal jurisdiction only by episodes committed during the performance of these functions. The judge who is engaged in this case must decide whether the episodes were persecuted by his (diplomatic) functions, and, accordingly, whether they fall under the protection of (diplomatic) immunity. ”