The billionaire owner of AS Monaco football club has been detained for questioning as part of an ongoing investigation into suspected corruption and influence peddling, according to reports.
Rybolovlev claims that art merchant Yves Bouvier defrauded him of more than $1bn (£760m) over the course of a decade by “repeatedly and blatantly misrepresented the acquisition prices” of 38 pieces of art purchased for a total of more than $2.1bn (£1.6bn) between 2003 and 2014.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Russian has also sued Sotheby’s for $380m, alleging the auction house helped Bouvier defraud him. Sotheby’s has dismissed the claim as “desperate” and without merit, The Guardian reports.
Rybolovlev himself has now come under investigation over allegations that he sought to influence law enforcement officials in the long-running dispute. In September, the head of Monaco’s judicial service was forced to resign after French newspaper Le Monde revealed that collaboration had occurred between Monaco justice officials and Rybolovlev, who earned his fortune through the sale of two Russian fertiliser producers.
Monaco prosecutors opened a corruption probe against Rybolovlev in 2017 based on material found on a mobile phone belonging to his lawyer, Tetiana Bersheda, according to The National.
Rybolovlev’s legal team claims that the seizure and analysis of the phone by police was a violation of the lawyer-client confidentiality and are challenging the move in court. He denies all wrongdoing.
“We regret the violation of the secrecy of the investigation, and we ask that Dmitry Rybolovlev’s presumption of innocence is rigorously respected,” his attorneys said in statement.
In 2017, Rybolovlev sold Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Christ, Salvator Mundi, for $450m at a Christie’s auction, making it the most expensive painting ever sold.
-
Grok in the crosshairs as EU launches deepfake porn probeIN THE SPOTLIGHT The European Union has officially begun investigating Elon Musk’s proprietary AI, as regulators zero in on Grok’s porn problem and its impact continent-wide
-
‘But being a “hot” country does not make you a good country’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Why have homicide rates reportedly plummeted in the last year?Today’s Big Question There could be more to the story than politics
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
