The National Crime Agency (NCA) has recovered £780,000 from the estate of Russian billionaire Peter Aven following an investigation into potential sanctions evasion.
Aven, the former head of Alfa-Bank, had his UK home raided by the NCA back in May 2022, which resulted in nine account freezing orders on accounts linked to him.
The NCA sought to block Aven from using a total of £1.5m in frozen funds stored in bank accounts linked to two companies responsible for managing his central London properties and Surrey estate.
The freezes came after HSBC and Monzo Bank raised concerns about possible sanctions breaches regarding transactions from those two company accounts.
Aven was sanctioned by the UK in March 2022, and sanctioned by the US authorities in August last year.
An agreement between the NCA and Aven’s estate manager, Stephen Gater, for the forfeiture of £783,827.34 was ratified at Westminster Magistrates Court today.
Commenting on the decision, a spokesperson for the NCA said this was a “significant” result, which marked the end of a “complex and long-running” investigation by the NCA’s Combatting Kleptocracy Cell.
“It demonstrates the NCA’s commitment to enforcing the UK’s sanctions regime, and to recovering money held unlawfully for the benefit of the public purse,” they added.
The Combating Kleptocracy Cell was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022, which he said was set up to “target sanctions evasion and corrupt Russian assets hidden in the UK”.
A legal representative for Aven was contacted for comment.