German court declares searches of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov’s villas and superyacht illegal

A Frankfurt court has found instances of searches being conducted in the villas and on the yacht of Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov, which took place last year in connection with a money laundering case, to be illegal, Spiegel reports.

The court ruled that there was no initial suspicion of Usmanov money laundering to justify the searches. The judges also criticised the investigators for relying mainly on a YouTube video from Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny and not providing any other proof of improper business practices.

“The accusation that the billion fortune possessed by Usmanov is mainly built on crimes committed in Russia is unfounded. More general references to potentially dubious business practices and offshore companies alone were not enough,” Spiegel reports. The Chamber also stated that there were “serious deficiencies” in the search warrants requested by the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The employees of the BKA Department for Serious and Organised Crime previously collected almost 90 suspicious money laundering reports from Usmanov’s bank accounts, which had details on large transactions, to substantiate the accusation.

In September, the employees of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the department of tax investigations conducted searches in several of Usmanov’s villas in the German town of Tegernsee, in his flat near the city of Frankfurt, as well on his superyacht Dilbar in the port of Bremen. The investigators seized documents and 30 paintings valued at €5 million.