Aven's estate manager to hand over nearly $1 million to UK authorities

The investigation concerned the transfer of funds from an Austrian trust to the UK before the EU imposed sanctions on Aven. London demanded that he pay a fine of $1.5 million. The businessman's representative agreed to transfer more than £750,000. Petr Aven

The manager of Alfa Group co-founder Petr Aven's assets has agreed to hand over more than £750,000 (about $963,000) to British authorities to end a nearly two-year investigation into the businessman's sanctions evasion, BLOOMBERG reported, citing Annabel Darlow, a spokesperson for the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The funds were in accounts at HSBC and Monzo Bank, and it was decided to refuse the money after Aven's wife and the managers of his property agreed that they were "property subject to return or intended for use for unlawful purposes," the agency quotes a COURT document. The businessman does not have accounts in the UK , and he is suspected of using the accounts of his wife and the company managing his property for personal purposes.

The NCA investigation involved a transfer of £3.7 million (more than $4.5 million). The agency said the funds were transferred from an Austrian trust to the UK hours before the EU imposed sanctions on Aven. The NCA was seeking a £1.2 million ($1.5 million) fine from Aven, as ordered by the court.

RBC sent a request to Alfa-Bank.

In mid-April, the EU Court of Justice ruled to annul the initial EU Council acts imposing sanctions against Aven and another Alfa Group co-founder, Mikhail Fridman. The restrictive measures in force from February 2022 to March 2023 were thus annulled. The acts justified the sanctions against the businessmen by their “support” for Russian officials responsible for destabilizing Ukraine, as well as “support” for actions and policies that undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

In March 2023, the EU Council rewrote the grounds for maintaining sanctions against Aven and Fridman, making them more formal. The sanctions under this criterion continue to be challenged by Aven and Fridman in separate legal proceedings, and a decision on these complaints has not yet been made. The two businessmen remain on the EU sanctions list.

Aven and Fridman are also included in the sanctions lists of the UK (since February 2022) and the US (since August 2023). Alfa-Bank is under sanctions by the UK, US and EU.

FORBES estimates Aven's fortune at $4.3 billion, and Fridman's at $13.4 billion.

RUSSIA considers sanctions illegal. Moscow does not understand either the logic of introducing restrictive measures or the logic of lifting them, the Kremlin noted. After the EU court's decision regarding Aven and Fridman, the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov called for not looking for positive or political motivation in this.