The manager of the property of the Russian billionaire, co-founder of Alfa Group Petr Aven in the UK agreed to hand over more than 750 thousand pounds to the authorities to complete the investigation into the case of sanctions evasion against the oligarch. This was reported by Bloomberg with reference to the representative of the National Crime Agency (NCA) Annabel Darlow.
Money from the accounts of Aven's wife in local banks was confiscated after she and the manager of the billionaire's property admitted that the funds were subject to seizure as part of «compensation for damages or as intended for use in illegal activities.» The oligarch himself does not have accounts in the UK. In addition, the authorities also confiscated money found during a search of Aven's mansion in the suburbs of London.
As previously reported by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the claims from the NCA were caused by money transfers by Aven, carried out after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the consortium of journalists, the first and largest money transfer — five million dollars — took place on September 28, 2022 — the day the European Union imposed sanctions against the oligarch.
The money was transferred to the accounts of Aven's assistant in the UK, Stephen Gaither, from an Austrian account through the Abacus bank branch in Cyprus. As Abacus representatives emphasized, the transfer was made several hours before information about sanctions against the billionaire appeared.
Aven himself and Alfa Group co-founder Mikhail Fridman are currently seeking to lift sanctions related to the war in Ukraine. In April of this year, the European Union court granted their claims and overturned the initial decision to impose sanctions and the first decision to extend them. The remaining decisions to extend sanctions against the bankers remain in effect.