Russian oligarch Fridman’s Ukraine assets seized

A Ukrainian court has arrested all the corporate rights of Russian businessmen Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven and Andrey Kosogov, including their mobile phone companies, the security service, or SBU, and the prosecutor general's office said on Friday.

In Ukraine, Mr Friedman is suspected of laundering USD 1.2 million and EUR 1.93 million and intentional tax evasion of UAH 18 million by officials of his former Sense Bank, one of Ukraine’s largest banks which was nationalised in July.

Mr Friedman, together with his Russian partners, allegedly tried to withdraw assets worth more than UAH 1 billion from Ukraine to avoid sanctions.

Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies did not provide the specific names of the companies, but said they work in the fields of finance, insurance, mobile, and IT, and some of them are mineral water plants. The value of the seized assets is estimated at UAH 17 billion.

It is known, however, that the Russians owned IDS Borjomi, one of the largest mineral water producers in Ukraine, a stake in Kyivstar mobile connection operator, and the Helsi.mi medical system.