News

The Moscow City Court lifted the arrest of Abyzov’s assets for 1 billion rubles

The Moscow City Court lifted the seizure of some assets of the former minister and Forbes list member Mikhail Abyzov. The arrest was lifted from €13 million, securities, real estate and the personal account of the businessman’s underage son

The Moscow City Court reversed the decision of the Basmanny Court for the arrest of assets of the former minister for Open Government and Forbes list member Mikhail Abyzov #175

worth over 1 billion rubles. This was reported by RBC citing a representative of the businessman.

As explained by the press service of the Moscow City Court, the reason for the cancellation of the interim measures were procedural violations. Abyzov’s lawyer specified that the arrest was removed from €13 million, securities and real estate belonging to the former minister, as well as the personal account of his minor son, the publication specifies.

In March 2019, Abyzov was arrested, accused of organizing a criminal association and fraud. According to investigators, from April 2011 to November 2014, the former minister, being the beneficial owner of several offshore commercial organizations, together with other suspects, deceived shareholders of SIBECO and RES and stole 4 billion rubles belonging to them. Abyzov did not plead guilty. In July, the court seized 8.7 billion rubles in his accounts. Abyzov’s defense then claimed that his assets worth 20 billion rubles were seized. A few days later, the court extended Abyzov’s arrest, then a criminal case was reopened against the former official, under which he was accused of violating the ban on entrepreneurial activity while working in the government and legalization of money when selling shares in companies he owned in 2018.

In September, an Interfax source reported on a third criminal case, the laundering of about 30 billion rubles.

Last week, one of the creditors of the Group E4 created by Mikhail Abyzov applied to the Arbitration Court of Moscow, demanding more than 34 billion rubles from the former minister himself, his ex-wife and the former president of the company. A preliminary court hearing to consider the claim is scheduled for February 10, 2020.