Russian billionaire Petr Aven, fighting a U.K. investigation for evading sanctions, used companies supposed to manage expenses for his luxury mansion as a personal "piggy bank," according to British authorities.
Aven himself has no UK bank account but is suspected of using the accounts held by his wife and estate management firms to fund his lifestyle, lawyers for the National Crime Agency told a London judge Tuesday. The investigation has focused on around £3.7 million ($3.6 million) routed to the U.K. from an Austrian trust in the hours before European sanctions were imposed.
Aven's estate companies are seeking to challenge a decision to maintain orders freezing their accounts in the first sanctions case heard at the High Court in London since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the early spring. The NCA raided the tycoon's mansion outside London in May.
"This is a live investigation," said Jonathan Hall a lawyer for the NCA. The companies that manage Aven's household were seeking to empty "the U.K. accounts which would prevent any forfeiture from taking place," he said.
The NCA, which started out as an agency focused on organized crime, has retooled to target the outsize influence of the oligarchs and their enablers. It's now set up a new Kleptocracy Unit to tackle the problem and is targeting those who have proximity to Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
Aven says that the funds were transferred from an Austrian account held by Bank Gutmann to advance of six months of payments for living expenses including school fees as well as security at the Surrey mansion and Aven's London property.
The NCA was alerted to the last-minute transfers of funds by reports from Monzo Bank and HSBC Holdings. In total, nearly £1.5 million of funds linked to Aven were frozen by authorities at the lenders.
"There may have been an intention to use those funds whether or not a license was in place," Hall said. "The monies in the accounts may have been intended for future sanctions breaches."
In a lower court, a judge partially eased restrictions on the estate accounts under a U.K. license that allowed for the billionaire to pay for "basic needs." But lawyers for the two companies that managed his household argued the freezing orders should be lifted in their entirety, saying the NCA had misled the judge with multiple misrepresentations.
The NCA was wrong to initially suggest that the Austrian money transfers breached sanctions, said Adrian Waterman, a lawyer for the companies. The NCA "tries to put some sort of 'Minority Report' gloss on it" by suggesting there was some anticipated criminality, he said.
The NCA operated on a "muddled factual picture," he said.
