Italian authorities seize $43M from Russian oligarch in grain scandal

The Italian Finance Guard from Florence has confiscated assets worth 43 million dollars from a Russian entrepreneur. The entrepreneur was a representative of an international grain trading company. The Russian citizen invested part of the money in a thirteenth-century castle in Florence.

The Finance Guard of Florence (Italy) took over the assets of the Russian businessman Oleksiy Fiodorychov, the owner of 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 to sell Ukrainian grain at reduced prices. The money for the delivered grain was never paid, however. As a result, the state corporation suffered losses exceeding 60 million dollars. During the investigation, it was found that part of these funds was used to purchase the castle in Florence.

The businessman in Ukraine is suspected of bribing state officials, being involved in fraud against a public company dealing in agricultural products, and money laundering, with an estimated value of 60 million dollars.

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 318 billion dollars are to remain frozen until Russia compensates for the damage done to Ukraine. World Bank estimates that rebuilding Ukraine will cost approximately 530 billion dollars.