Russian oligarch arrested in France in money laundering probe

A Russian tycoon has been arrested in France in connection with alleged tax evasion and money laundering and for violating international sanctions, prosecutors have said.

Searches took place on Monday at Kuzmichev’s Paris home and in the Mediterranean Var region as part of the investigation, the French Financial Prosecutors office said, confirming a report in the French daily newspaper Le Monde.

The search was carried out during a dramatic raid involving 60 officers.

Kuzmichev was still being held in custody on Tuesday but has not yet been charged in the case.

French customs agents last year seized the oligarch’s 27-metre yacht "La Petite Ourse", as part of sanctions by the European Union for his ties to president Vladimir Putin.

The move sparked a legal battle between authorities and Kuzmichev, who used to be one of the main shareholders of Russia’s Alfa Bank.

He is one of the few Russian oligarchs to be detained in the West over the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The EU imposed sanctions on Kuzmichev alongside his partners Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan in March 2022 for “actively supporting materially or financially and benefiting from Russian decision makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea or the destabilisation of Ukraine”.

The bloc said Kuzmichev was also “one of the leading Russian business persons involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue” to the Kremlin.

A report claimed he was “one of the most influential persons in Russia [with] well-established ties to the Russian president”.

Kuzmichev has not visited the country since the invasion and sold his stakes in Alfa-Bank last year to Andrei Kosogov, another Alfa-Bank shareholder who is not under sanctions.