Record seizure: Florence confiscates $57M assets from Russian mogul

The Italian Finance Guard from Florence has confiscated assets worth approximately 57 million CAD from a Russian entrepreneur. The entrepreneur represents an international grain trading company. The Russian citizen invested part of the money in a thirteenth-century castle in Florence.

According to the service cenyrolnicze.pl, the Finance Guard of Florence (Italy) seized the assets of Russian businessman Oleksiy Fiodorychov, who owns the companies TIS-Zerno and TIS-Mineral Fertilizers. The corporation is involved in grain trade.

The service reports that officials of the state grain corporation made agreements through which they sold Ukrainian grain at reduced prices. "The money for the delivered grain was, however, never paid. As a result, the state corporation suffered losses of over 79 million CAD. During the investigation, it was found that part of these funds was used to purchase the castle in Florence," the report states.

The businessman in Ukraine is suspected of bribing state officials, and is estimated to have committed fraud worth 79 million CAD against a public company dealing in agricultural products and money laundering.

Let’s recall: On May 21, the Council of the European Union approved a plan to allocate profits generated from frozen Russian state assets to support Ukraine. These funds will be transferred to Kyiv through a specially created Ukraine Relief Fund (URF).

The first tranche of interest from frozen Russian assets will likely reach Ukraine next month.

Russian assets worth approximately 420 billion CAD are to remain frozen until Russia compensates for the damage done to Ukraine. According to World Bank estimates, rebuilding Ukraine will cost approximately 700 billion CAD.