Founder of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman (Forbes estimates his fortune of $12.6 billion) won a lawsuit against a housekeeper from his London Athlone House, The Telegraph reports.
Plaintiff Dominika Kozlik was on maternity leave when Friedman came under British sanctions in the spring of 2022. As a result, his accounts were frozen, and he was unable to pay the staff who serviced the house. In October last year, the High Court of London did not satisfy the businessman’s claim to lift the ban on paying the costs of maintaining his mansion, including employee salaries, from frozen funds.
RBC news agency, 10/26/2023, “The court did not allow Friedman to spend money on a mansion in London”: The High Court of London refused to satisfy the claim of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman (Forbes estimates his fortune at $12.6 billion) to lift the ban on paying for the maintenance costs of his Athlone House mansion from his frozen funds, reports Reuters.
Friedman, who came under British sanctions last spring after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, sued after the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) refused to allow him to spend £30,000 on maintenance of his London mansion and a number of other expenses. OFSI decided his request was not to meet “basic needs” but so he could “continue to enjoy the lifestyle he led” before he was sanctioned.
The businessman bought the Victorian mansion for £65 million in 2016. It houses an art collection valued at £44 million. Freedman’s lawyers say Athlone House is “a unique property with unique needs, not least in light of the art collection.” […]
At the same time, OFSI allowed the businessman to spend about £760 thousand a year on maintaining the mansion and about another £1.4 million to pay off accumulated debts. High Court Judge Pushpinder Sani found OFSI’s decision to be lawful. Friedman’s lawyers also told the court that he would like to be able to return to Britain, but the judge countered that this was not possible because he was banned from entering the country due to sanctions. — Insert K.ru
Because of this situation, Kozlik lost the benefits she was entitled to in connection with pregnancy and childbirth, and she was fired in March 2022. She has been a housekeeper there since March 2021, and has generally worked for Friedman since 2015. The woman went on maternity leave for a year in November 2021 and was supposed to receive £1.5 thousand ($1.9 thousand) monthly.
Kozlik sued Friedman for unfair dismissal due to pregnancy, gender discrimination and breach of contract, but the court ruled that she was simply a “victim of the process” and the businessman could not pay her without committing a “criminal offense” due to the rules imposed against him sanctions.
RBC sent a request to the press service of Alfa Bank.
Friedman called sanctions against himself were unfounded and in 2022 compared life in London under restrictions with house arrest. In addition to the British, he is included in the sanctions lists USA And EU.
In September 2023, businessman statedthat he had lost his sense of calm and stability in London due to the ten-month investigations UK National Crime Agency on charges of fraud and conspiracy to evade sanctions.
In October last year, an RBC source close to the businessman reportedthat he left the UK and moved to Israel. This was confirmed by Alfa Group, where they clarified that the entrepreneur is now in Moscow and “now plans to visit Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) regularly.” Friedman himself explained leaving Britain “due to the impossibility of living under sanctions.”
RBC news agency, 12/20/2023, “The SBU has put billionaire Mikhail Fridman on the wanted list”: The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has put Russian businessman and founder of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman on the wanted list […]follows from the data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, writes “Strana.ua”. In September, the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office accused Fridman for involvement in financing military operations in Ukraine. The intelligence service claimed that since the beginning of hostilities, the businessman had poured in about 2 billion rubles. to Russian defense factories.
According to the SBU, Fridman is involved in the distribution of dry rations, clothing and other products under the “Russian Army” brand, which were supplied to the Russian military on the front lines, and organized the collection of material assistance for them. He was informed in absentia of suspicion under Part 3 of Art. 110-2 of the Criminal Code (financing of actions committed with the aim of forcibly changing or overthrowing the constitutional order or seizing state power, changing the boundaries of the territory or state border of Ukraine, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy). In Ukraine, the billionaire faces up to eight years in prison with confiscation of property. In October, the Ukrainian court seized assets Friedman and his partners – Petra Avena And Andrey Kosogov, — more than 17 billion UAH (over $464 million). — Insert K.ru
