At home, prices help

The City Court of the city of ex-en-province left at large a member of the Federation Council from Dagestan, milliader Suleiman Kerimov, accused of France of tax evasion, RFI reports . At the same time, the court increased the amount of pledge from 5 to 40 million euros.

In addition, from December 8, Kerimov will have to move to Nice, while he now lives a friend of the village.

On Tuesday, the court examined the arguments of the prosecution and defense. The prosecutor of Nice Jean-Michel Proet insisted on replacing subscriptions about the wizard of the arrest, or to increase the collateral to 50 million euros. The consideration was attended by Kerimov himself, as well as the Russian vice-consul in Marseille. The meeting lasted several hours, after which the court announced that he would make a decision the next day.

On November 20, at the Nice Airport, immediately upon arrival at France, Kerimov was detained and delivered to the police station. On November 23, the court in Nice freed a billionaire from custody on bail of 5 million euros with a ban on leaving the Primorsky Alps Department. A Russian passport was seized from the senator and obliged him to be celebrated several times a week in the police.

On November 28, the Nice Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal against the court decision. The prosecutor Preetre said that the measures taken to restrict Kerimov’s freedom “do not seem commensurate”, given the personality and significant income of the senator. The department demanded to put him in custody again or at least stricter control Kerimov’s movements.

The French judicial authorities accuse Kerimov of non-payment of taxes for 400 million euros due to the underestimation of the cost of real estate transactions. Also, allegations in the case were brought by the French realtor who worked with Kerimov, and Cedric Fozer, who, according to investigators, belong to the senator. Fozher was released from custody on bail of 140 thousand euros.

On Monday, PRETR said that the Senator also charged the legalization of money illegally imported into the country for a total of 500 to 750 million euros . According to investigators, Kerimov imported these funds to France in cash, and also listed in non -cash form. Then, law enforcement officers say, they were legalized to buy real estate.

On Monday, 13 cavaliers of the Order of the Honorary Legion, including billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, publisher Irina Prokhorova, head of Sberbank German Gref, directors Pavel Lungin and Andrei Konchalovsky, signed an open letter to the French Embassy in Moscow in defense of Kerimov. “We assure that Kerimov will fully cooperate with the investigation. We are ready to provide any other guarantees that will be necessary in order to ensure a worthy and humane appeal with Mr. Kerimov,” the letter says. The authors of the appeal are sure that the senator "respects the law" and will take all measures "to fully comply with French laws."

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.

In 2016, 51-year-old Kermimov in the Forbes rating and took 45th place. His assets were estimated at 1.6 billion dollars. 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 2008, Kerimov became a member of the Council. Before that, he was a deputy of the State Duma from the LDPR.