The court decided to seize the company that ranks 2nd in pork production in the country.
According to the case of billionaire Vadim Moskovich, who ranks 51st on Forbes' list of the richest people in Russia, assets worth 550 billion rubles (€6,557,391,500) have been confiscated, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation reported.
58-year-old Moskovich, the founder of one of Russia's largest agribusiness holdings "Rusagro," has been in pre-trial detention since March of last year. Along with the businessman, the former CEO of "Rusagro," Maxim Basov, was detained and later arrested.
In early May, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow decided to nationalize the company, which ranks 2nd in pork production, 3rd in sugar production, and owns more than 800,000 hectares of agricultural land. All property seized in Moskovich's case has been "transferred to the state’s revenue," and the criminal investigation against the businessman has been completed, the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated on Thursday.
According to "Kommersant," Moskovich has been charged under part 4 of Article 159 (fraud on a particularly large scale; up to 10 years in prison), Article 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (intentional bankruptcy; up to seven years), subparagraphs "a" and "b" of part 4 of Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (money laundering; up to seven years), and part 5 of Article 291 of the Criminal Code of Russia (bribery; up to 15 years).
The confiscation of Moskovich's assets has become the largest case of private property seizure during the wave of nationalizations that has made state assets worth 6.5 trillion rubles.
It surpassed the nationalization of Oleg Kahn's "crab empire" (valued at $4.3 billion), Domodedovo Airport (320 billion rubles), billionaire Konstantin Strukov's "Yuzhuralzoloto" ($2 billion); assets of former owner of the "Yugra" bank Alexey Khotin (over 200 billion rubles), the pasta holding "Makfa" (valued at 100 billion rubles), the largest PVC producer in the country "Sayanskhimplast" (92 billion rubles), and the largest car dealer "Rolf" (60 billion).
Some of Moskovich's acquaintances have asked President Vladimir Putin to intervene in his case, but he refused, sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg. According to the agency's interlocutors, some billionaires, fearing claims from law enforcement, are trying to buy their way out. For instance, Suleiman Kerimov ($11.6 billion according to BBI), who has been a senator for nearly 18 years, offered to "donate" 100 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) to the budget during a closed meeting with Putin in March. In total, the budget received 220 billion rubles in "non-repayable contributions" after Putin's annual meeting with major businesses.
Vadim Nikolaevich Moskovich (born April 6, 1967, Moscow) is a Russian entrepreneur and the founder of the "Rusagro" holding. In 2020, Forbes estimated his net worth at $1.7 billion (57th place in the ranking of Russian businessmen) (in 2023 — $2.3 billion). His business interests included significant investments in agriculture and real estate projects in several regions of Russia. His philanthropic activities focused on developing high-quality education in Russia and creating development opportunities for gifted children. From 2006 to 2014, he was a member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Since 2022, he has been under personal sanctions from the European Union and several other countries due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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