German agents raid Bavarian villa of sanctioned Russian
October 6, 2023
German police, tax investigators and customs agents in the southern German state of Bavaria carried out a raid on a villa belonging to an unnamed Russian individual on Thursday.
Officials carrying out the court-ordered search say the unnamed individual is subject to EU sanctions and asset seizures put in place after Moscow's invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.
"Due to tactical reasons related to the investigation, no further information can be provided," customs officials said.
Reuters news agency reported that the raid targetted Alisher Usmanov, a Russian-Uzbek businessman who was sanctioned in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Photos from the scene showed agents seizing numerous German-made luxury vehicles.
The villa targeted by officials is located in Rottach-Egern at Tegernsee, a well-heeled resort town on a popular lake in the Bavarian Alps, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southeast of the Bavarian capital of Munich.
Officials from the Central Office for Sanctions Enforcement (ZfS) say some 30 investigators were involved in the raid and added that the villa in Rottach-Egern was not their only target — raids were also carried out at other Tegernsee properties owned by the sanctioned Russian as well as in Munich.
EU laws stipulate that all assets held by a sanctioned individual are to be frozen and may not be transferred or disposed of, they also include travel bans.
ZfS agents carried out a similar if decidedly larger raid on another Russian oligarch, Alisher Usmanov, in September 2022.
In that operation, 250 agents were involved in coordinated searches at various properties across Germany.
Usmanov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was accused of money laundering and EU sanctions violations.
js/sms (AP, dpa, Reuters)
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