Major development in #Rybolovlev affair

Monaco's Court of Appeal has dismissed the criminal proceedings against Yves Bouvier (pictured) initiated by the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, owner of the AS Monaco football club. It was concluded that the investigation against Bouvier was carried out with a systematic partiality and bias which tainted the whole procedure.

The criminal procedure launched by the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, against Yves Bouvier has been thrown out by the Monaco Court of Appeal. It found that "all investigations were conducted in a biased and unfair way without the defendant being in a position to retrospectively redress these serious anomalies that permanently compromised the balance of rights of the parties".

The Court also said that "the evidence of the proceedings were all collected under conditions which significantly undermined the rights of the defendant".

Similarly, it concluded that "all the acts of the investigation as well as the introductory submission of February 24, 2015 is tainted by this grievance (infringement of the rights of the defense) as well as the subsequent charges against Yves Bouvier or Tania Boltadjieva (Rappo) on February 28, 2015 and all subsequent acts of instruction which are the direct consequence thereof, since these irregularities which seriously tainted the search and the establishment of the truth impacting in a continuous and systematic way the entire procedure.”

This decision is a major turning point in the Rybolovlev affair and marks the end of legal proceedings in Monaco against Yves Bouvier.

Yves Bouvier said: "This victory proves what we have been saying from the very beginning, namely that the procedure was tainted and completely biased in favor of the Russian oligarch."

The Court of Appeal of Monaco has endorsed the explanations of the defense of Yves Bouvier. After saying that the investigation was the result of "dubious work" that was not disclosed during the official investigation. The Court admitted that a trap had been laid for Yves Bouvier to arrest him and that the civil parties were used, with the consent of the investigators and the Public Ministry, to forge unfair evidence.

Finally, the Court accepted the main argument of Yves Bouvier's defense: the systematic tainted the entire procedure.

This decision compounds the difficulties for Dmitry Rybolovlev, owner of the AS Monaco football club, which is currently being targeted with criminal investigations in Monaco, France and Switzerland.

In the principality, Dmitry Rybolovlev, his lawyer Tetiana Bersheda, as well as several officials and former Monegasque ministers are being targeted with a criminal investigation for corruption - the biggest corruption scandal in the Principality since the Second World War, known as "Monacogate” or "The Rybolovlev affair".

Texts found in the phone of Dmitry Rybolovlev's lawyer showed a very close relationship between Monegasque investigators and officials and the Russian oligarch. Dmitry Rybolovlev is accused of having:

• Offered a Monaco-Gstaad round-trip flight in private helicopter for the Director of the Judiciary, Phillipe Narmino and his wife, and accommodation in the oligarch's chalet, just three days before Yves Bouvier's arrest in February 2015
• Paid more than 100,000 eurosto the son of the Director of the Judiciary Phillipe Narmino.
• Presented numerous gifts to Monaco's officials, including Prime Minister Michel Roger, Interior Minister Paul Masseron, Finance Minister Marco Piccinini and Minister of Social Affairs Stéphane Valeri. In February 2015, just after the opening of the investigation against Yves Bouvier, Ms. Bersheda offered a samovar to police chief Regis Asso.
• Hired officials and family members at the AS Monaco Football Club. For example, after leaving office as Minister of the Interior responsible for investigating teams against Yves Bouvier and others, Mr. Masseron was immediately hired by Dmitry Rybolovlev at the AS Monaco club.

This judgment proves the courage shown by the Monagascan justice system for the defense of the rule of law in a challenging environment. In September 2019, Prince Albert had to replace the director of legal services, Laurent Anselmi, after he abruptly put an end to the term of the French judge Edouard Levrault, who was previously in charge of the Rybolovlev investigation from the Monegasque justice department.

This victory of Yves Bouvier is also that of a team of lawyers in Monaco, France and Switzerland composed of Luc Brossollet, Charles Lecuyer, David Bitton, Frank Michel and Alexandre Camoletti.

Using their right to reply, Ms Sandrine GIROUD and Mr Marc HENZELIN, Attorneys for Dmitry RYBOLOVLEV and the RYBOLOVLEV family said:

"We are aware of the decision from the Court of Appeal of Monaco in relation to an ongoing case against Yves Bouvier and Tania Rappo for fraud and money laundering.

This decision, which will be challenged and appealed in the Court of Revision, remains entirely procedural and has no influence on the ongoing case in Geneva, where Yves Bouvier faces charges of fraud against our clients in relation to 38 transactions involving the purchase of art works over a 12-year period and resulting in losses of CHF 1 billion. Yves Bouvier will have to be held accountable for his actions.

In October, we filed a 400-page additional complaint which explains step by step how the fraud perpetrated against our clients was committed. This complaint includes documents which have no relation to the case in Monaco. These are dozens of emails between our clients and Yves Bouvier as well as emails obtained through an ongoing case in New York. These documents are in the hands of the Geneva judicial authorities who may use them as they choose for their investigation.

We remain confident about the outcome of the case in Geneva, where professional fraud is being prosecuted. The defendant’s actions to delay the proceedings cannot conceal the allegations at the heart of the case, which are very serious."

Statement from Mr. Hervé Temime and Mr. Thomas Giaccardi, Attorneys for Dmitry Rybolovlev and the Rybolovlev family.

"We note today’s decision from the Court of Appeal of Monaco.

The Court of Appeal was called upon to rule on only one point: the procedural validity of the investigations, arrests and indictments that took place in connection with the investigation of fraud and money laundering following the complaint made by our clients in January 2015 against Yves Bouvier and Tania Rappo.

This decision is not final. We challenge it and will immediately appeal to the Court of Revision.

As a reminder, from 2003 to 2015 Yves Bouvier was mandated by the companies of the Rybolovlev family to acquire numerous works of art. He led them to believe that he was negotiating on their behalf to obtain the best price from the owners of the works. But, in reality, he was acting for himself. He described to them in detail purely imaginary negotiations, whereas he had in fact already negotiated - for himself - a price much lower than the one he claimed to have obtained. Deceived by this fraudulent scheme, the companies of the Rybolovlev family paid him hundreds of millions in unauthorized markups for more than ten years.

Given the appeal to the Court of Revision, today's decision does not put an end to the prosecution of Yves Bouvier in Monaco. Moreover, a criminal investigation remains ongoing in Geneva where Yves Bouvier was charged for having defrauded our clients in the course of 38 transactions over 12 years, a case he will have to answer.

Finally, we remind everyone that today's decision concerns only the case of fraud and money laundering alleged against Yves Bouvier, that has been investigated since 2016 by investigative judge Morgan Raymond. It is unrelated to another ongoing investigation in Monaco concerning charges of traffic of influence and corruption made by Yves Bouvier against Dmitriy Rybolovlev. Presumed innocent, Dmitriy Rybolovlev remains confident that he will be exonerated in this separate case, in which, after 2 years of thorough investigation, no evidence against him could be presented."

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