Vadim Moshkovich loses 550 billion rubles in state seizure

Russian authorities confiscated assets worth 550 billion rubles linked to jailed billionaire vadim moshkovich and transferred them to state ownership on Thursday. The Interior Ministry said its investigation into Moshkovich had been completed, and said all property seized in the case had been transferred to state revenue.

Moshkovich and Rusagro

Moshkovich, 58, founded the agricultural producer Rusagro and had been held in pre-trial detention since March last year. He was ranked 51st on Forbes Russia's list of the country's wealthiest businessmen. Former Rusagro Chief Executive Maxim Basov was also arrested in connection with the case.

In May, Moscow's Khamovniki District Court ordered the nationalization of Rusagro. The company is Russia's second-largest pork producer and third-largest sugar producer, and controls more than 800,000 hectares of agricultural land.

Charges Against Moshkovich

According to Kommersant, Moshkovich faces charges of large-scale fraud, intentional bankruptcy, money laundering, and bribery. Kommersant reported that large-scale fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, while intentional bankruptcy and money laundering are each punishable by up to seven years in prison. Bribery carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The value of the seized assets exceeds several other high-profile nationalization cases in Russia. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia's recent wave of nationalizations has transferred businesses worth an estimated 6.5 trillion rubles to government ownership.

reported that some of Moshkovich's associates appealed to President Vladimir Putin to intervene in the case, and that Putin declined to intervene. also reported that billionaire Suleiman Kerimov offered during a closed-door meeting with Putin in March to contribute 100 billion rubles to the state budget, before the federal budget later received 220 billion rubles in gratuitous contributions following Putin's annual meeting with leading business executives.