Russia riled after French police arrest oligarch suspected of tax fraud
RUSSIA has protested against the arrest of a billionaire playboy with ties to the Kremlin, raising the threat of a diplomatic spat between Moscow and Paris.
Police investigating suspected tax fraud on the French Riviera arrested 51-year-old Suleiman Kerimov, who has a net worth of nearly $7billion (£5.3billion) and has been called the “Russian Gatsby,” at Nice airport on Tuesday. He appeared in court and was last night placed under formal investigation.
French authorities reportedly suspect Mr Kerimov of secretly purchas- ing grand houses on the Cap d’antibes and failing to pay tens of millions of euros in taxes.
Money laundering is also believed to figure in the allegations against him.
Among the properties reportedly linked to Mr Kerimov was the Villa Hier, where Michael Caine and Steve Martin filmed the 1988 comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Tax authorities seized the residence in September.
Mr Kerimov has reportedly denied the accusations. His net worth shrunk by $117million on the day after his arrest, Russian Forbes reported, and shares in Polyus, Russia’s largest gold producer, which he controls, fell by 5per cent. Yet even if the markets have not stood by him, the Kremlin has. Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters that Russia is conducting “intensive work” to assist Mr Kerimov.
“We will do everything in our power to protect his lawful interests,” Mr Peskov said.
The Russian foreign ministry has sent a note of protest to French authorities, arguing that, as a high-ranking official, Mr Kerimov has immunity from prosecution abroad, according to Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament. He said Mr Kerimov is a diplomatic passport holder.
However, RIA Novosti, the state news agency, reported that Mr Kerimov had entered France on his private passport, and often only diplomatic couriers and embassy and consulate employees enjoy diplomatic immunity under an international agreement.
Leonid Slutsky, the foreign affairs head in Russia’s lower house of parliament, hoped the arrest was a “misunderstanding” and not “planned provocation”. Valentina Matvienko, speaker of the upper house, called Mr Kerimov’s arrest “unprecedented” and “inexcusable”, arguing that France should have first made a complaint against him to Russia.
“If there would have been concrete grievances, he probably would have thought twice about whether he should go to France or not,” she said.