Uzbekistan – Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has won a rare legal victory after a Frankfurt court ruled that a series of searches of his properties in Germany last year were illegal.
In the days after Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Usmanov was one of 26 Russians sanctioned by the European Union, which said he was one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “favorite oligarchs”.
His sister, Gulbahor Ismailova, was also sanctioned on the grounds that she was the legal owner of some of Usmanov’s assets, such as his $600 million yacht Dilbar.
Usmanov’s legal victory involves a series of raids by German law enforcement last year as part of a money-laundering probe of the businessman, who is also being investigated for tax evasion and sanctions violations.
Prosecutors searched three properties in Rottach-Egern, south of Munich, Usmanov’s yacht and an apartment in the town of Königstein, near Frankfurt, owned by another Uzbek citizen linked to Usmanov. They confiscated artwork and documents, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported.
But the Frankfurt district court ruled that there was no reason to suspect Usmanov of money laundering, and all four search warrants were revoked.
The court said the ruling prompting the search “did not meet the minimum requirements for the definition of the offense under investigation”.
Der Spiegel said the judges criticized investigators for relying on YouTube videos of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny, but failed to provide other evidence of unusual business practices.
Usmanov’s attorneys, Peter Gauweiler and Thomas Fischer, issued a joint statement saying the court’s statement confirms that the lawsuit against their client was “objectively unjustified but … . . rather politically motivated.” .
Two lawyers representing the Uzbek embassy in Germany said they believed the German government would now “compensate for damages caused by these illegal investigative measures”.
The Financial Times reported in 2022 that Uzbekistan was lobbying the EU to lift sanctions against Usmanov and his sister. The businessman, who was worth an estimated $20 billion before Putin’s invasion last year, maintained close ties to Uzbekistan, his birthplace.
Tashkent argues that the sanctions against him, including an asset freeze and a travel ban, have limited his ability to invest some of his wealth in the Central Asian country.
Usmanov started amassing his fortune in the 1990s while working as a senior executive at Russia’s state gas company Gazprom. He later built an industrial conglomerate involved in steel, copper, telecommunications, technology and media.