Russia hires top debt collection team to chase down & recover $1bn of assets from ’Putin’s banker’
Russia’s Deposit Insurance Agency (the DIA) has hired the Alfa Group to go after the vast wealth of fugitive ex-oligarch and Western media favorite Sergey Pugachev.
Moscow is seeking Pugachev’s funds after a financial institution he created – the International Industrial Bank (Mezhprombank) – went bust and lost 72.5 billion rubles ($1.03 billion). He is wanted over accusations that the bankruptcy was deliberate.
Dubbed ‘Putin's banker’ by Anglo-American reporters, Pugachev left Russia in 2011 after obtaining French citizenship, and the DIA has been attempting to expropriate his foreign assets ever since. The hiring of Alfa Group shows a distinct ramping up of these efforts.
Russia has had some success chasing Pugachev’s assets abroad, with the High Court in London freezing more than £1 billion ($1.23 billion) worth of assets.
In 2015, Pugachev filed a lawsuit against Russia, countersuing for $14.5 billion. The Hague tribunal rejected Pugachev’s demand in June 2020.
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