Officially owned by a Russian-Armenian billionaire, Villa del Mare is linked to the Russian gas giant through a string of companies. French authorities have opened an investigation into money laundering.

Gazprom, the Russian gas giant run by people close to Vladimir Putin which has escaped European sanctions, is caught up in the French justice system. A specialized jurisdiction of the Paris prosecutor's office known as JIRS is looking into a villa on the French Riviera. Located in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, near Monaco, it was once a pied-à-terre for the Zairean dictator Sese Seko Mobutu and his family. Its three swimming pools, tennis court and heliport make it one of the most luxurious villas on the Côte d'Azur.

Le Monde has learned that judicial proceedings involving suspicions of "aggravated money laundering" have been opened and entrusted to the Financial Judicial Investigation Department (SEJF) of France's Finance and Economy Ministry. "There is evidence to suggest that the successive acquisition schemes for the villa were carried out in the name of various companies, whose indirect ownership would make Gazprom the beneficial owner," the prosecutor's office told Le Monde. It was suspicions about the real identity of the property's owner that triggered the judicial investigation.

The gas giant, which accounted for 8% of Russia's GDP before the war in Ukraine, is one of the biggest contributors to the Russian state budget. Part of its revenue is also used to finance a private militia engaged on the Ukrainian front, according to documents revealed by Kyiv in February. The state-owned company is run by people close to Vladimir Putin: both its CEO Alexei Miller and Viktor Zubkov, the chairman of the supervisory board, worked alongside him when the future president was working at the Saint Petersburg mayor's office.

Since autumn 2016, the official owner of the Roquebrune-Cap-Martin villa has been a wealthy Russian-Armenian businessman, Samvel Karapetyan. But numerous elements gathered by Le Monde from official records and data leaked from the Cyprus Confidential investigation show that Gazprom still maintains multiple links with this villa today, despite its official withdrawal in 2016. Le Monde can reveal that the villa has been pledged to Gazprombank and an offshore company linked to a Gazprom executive. If the judicial investigation establishes that the numerous arrangements surrounding the property have served to conceal the identity of the true owner of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, the courts could seize the property and confiscate it permanently in the event of a conviction.

Estimated at over €200 million

"As soon as Gazprombank is involved in luxury real estate transactions somewhere in the European Union (EU), it's an alert that should trigger a proper investigation by EU authorities," said Ilia Shumanov, director of the NGO Transparency International-Russia. The property in question, estimated to be worth over €200 million, is one of the most expensive on the Côte d'Azur. It comprises a 1,225 m² main villa, long known as Villa del Mare, and extends over an estate of more than three hectares, with a guest house and a third building to house the household staff. Much more than a luxury property, it lies at the heart of complex financial arrangements between Gazprom and those close to Putin. When contacted by Le Monde, neither the oligarchs in question nor the company responded to our questions.

The luxury property passed into Russian hands in 2001, when billionaire Shalva Chigirinsky acquired it and renamed it Villa Maria Irina. This businessman had long possessed one of Russia's largest fortunes thanks to his stakes in Sibir Energy, a London-listed Russian company specializing in oil exploration, extraction and refining. But Chigirinsky lost the property when he was caught up in financial difficulties in 2009 as well as accusations of embezzlement at the expense of Sibir Energy.

Gazprom Neft, Gazprom's oil subsidiary, took advantage of its competitor's setbacks to absorb it and, in 2010, acquired the villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin for €70 million, even though estimates at the time had put the price three times higher. "I had no chance to change anything," Chigirinsky, who had to leave Russia, told Le Monde. "[Neither] in the price [of the villa], [nor] in my exit of the company [Sibir Energy]. I had no choice." The deposed owner adds that he spent a lot of money repairing the villa because it was in poor condition.

Gazprom Neft became the owner of the villa through the French company Maritime Villa Holding, created for the occasion. In 2015 and 2016, the property was shuffled from one shareholder to another, passing in turn through Luxembourg, Russia, Cyprus and Panama, while remaining under the ultimate control of Gazprom Neft. These legal arrangements, with no apparent economic justification, are at the heart of the judicial investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office.

Lucrative contracts signed with Gazprom

At the end of 2016, Karapetyan became the villa's new owner by buying out Gazprom Neft's shares in Cyprus-registered Leyson Holdings, which in turn controls the French company Maritime Villa Holding.

This businessman, whose name regularly appears on the list of Russia's 100 richest people, heads Tashir Group, which operates in the real estate, construction, energy and finance sectors. Karapetyan largely owes his rise to lucrative contracts signed with Gazprom. The first of these was signed in the 1990s, notably in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow, where his company built a workers' camp.

According to the investigation published in mid-2016 by the independent Russian media RBC, the year in which Karapetyan acquired the villa on the French Riviera and benefited from a loan from Gazprom coincided with a significant increase in public contracts to his benefit. These rose, according to RBC, from 42.5 billion rubles (€530 million) in 2014, to 52.9 billion rubles in 2015 and 20.8 billion rubles in the first three months of 2016 alone, representing on average 40% of his revenue. Tashir Group subsidiaries Gazstroy, Neftegazstroy, Spetsgazstroy and City Stroy Group supply the gas giant with heating systems, water treatment plants and pipes for pipeline construction.

An offshore shell based in the Seychelles

Karapetyan and Gazprom are also linked by the Côte d'Azur villa. To take control of the villa, the businessman had to pay off a €112 million debt owed by Maritime Villa Holding to a British Virgin Islands company owned by Gazprom Neft. However, Karapetyan is not contributing a single cent to repay this sum. This is being done by his newly acquired company Leyson Holdings, thanks to a €115 million loan taken out in December 2016 from Gazprombank, which is owned by Gazprom and Yuri Kovalchuk, a close associate of Putin. In other words, the oligarch remains indebted to the gas giant, which can recover the villa in the event of non-repayment. This arrangement enables the Russian group to disappear from the villa's register of owners, while retaining some form of control.

In April 2020, the Villa Maria Irina was once again used as collateral, this time for a €50 million loan granted to Leyson, Karapetyan's Cypriot holding company, by the offshore company Megan Agency Ltd, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands and could therefore become one of the beneficiaries of the villa in the French Riviera. To discover the identity of the lender, we need to trace the shareholders. Megan Agency Ltd is owned by another offshore shell established in the Seychelles, itself controlled by a Russian: Vadym Tregub, nephew of Sergei Tregub, a former member of the Russian intelligence services who also has links with Gazprom. According to an investigation by the Russian investigative website Proekt and the Anti-Corruption Fund founded by opposition figure Alexei Navalny, it acts as a dummy company for Miller, the head of Gazprom, to hold real estate assets. This connection earned Sergei Tregub and his nephew a place on the British sanctions list on November 8.

"The oligarchs surrounding Putin are using Gazprom to enrich themselves," explained Mikhail Krutikhin, co-founder of Oslo-based adviser RusEnergy. "They're using it as an instrument to turn public funds into pocket money."

It remains to be seen whether Villa Maria Irina was used by the company or by private individuals when Gazprom Neft was the official owner. According to a rental agreement found in the millions of documents revealed by the "Cyprus Confidential" investigation, Gazprom Neft leased the estate to one of its Cypriot subsidiaries in 2015 and 2016 for a monthly rent of €210,000. But the identity of the occupants remains a mystery. "No comment," replied Bordes Estates, the company responsible for managing the villa. French business magazine Challenges affirmed in March 2022 that the property was occupied by Alina Kabaeva, a Russian ex-gymnast presented as Putin's hidden companion. Le Monde was unable to verify this information from official records.