Russian billionaires fail to overturn EU sanctions – Bloomberg

Russian businessmen Gennady Timchenko and Dmitry Pumpyansky have lost the first round of their bid to challenge EU sanctions, which they claim violate their rights, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The businessmen have been targeted over their alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Bloomberg, the EU’s General Court on Wednesday dismissed the billionaires’ appeals as well as of those of their spouses and Pumpyansky’s son. The decisions can still be appealed, the outlet wrote.

Lawyers for Timchenko and his wife reportedly claim that Brussels’ designation of the businessman as a close friend of Putin lacks any foundation.

The owner of energy investment company Volga Group, Timchenko resigned from the management of Russia’s largest private natural gas producer, Novatek, last year after being targeted with sanctions by the 27-nation bloc.

Meanwhile, Pumpyansky has described the sanctions against him, his wife, and his son as “collateral damage” in the EU’s foreign policy efforts against Putin. Pumpyansky is the owner and chairman of TMK, a Russian global manufacturer of steel pipes for the oil and gas industry. The EU has imposed measures against him based on claims that his businesses benefit from working with the Russian state.

Last August, a $75 million superyacht linked to Pumpyansky was auctioned off in Gibraltar. The luxury vessel was sold for the benefit of US investment bank JPMorgan Chase, which claimed that Pumpyansky owed it more than $20 million.

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