The Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region of the Russian Federation has seized the property of Freedom Holding Corp director Timur Turlov and other defendants in a lawsuit brought by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) in favour of the bank 'Assotsiatsiya'.
According to Interfax, the court seized Turlov's funds and other property worth 18.9 million euros and $2 million. The list also includes nearly half of the stake in LLC 'Marine Operation Services' (49%).
Alongside Turlov, the other defendants in the case are Stanislav Mashagin, Marina Kosyreva and Olga Artemyeva. Their property and funds have also been similarly seized within the same amounts.
According to bes.media, the founder of Freedom Holding Corp, for his part, stated that he had not received any official confirmation of the property seizure.
"I was very surprised to learn from the media about the alleged claims against me from the DIA. I have no official confirmation of any statement of claim from the DIA in my possession. Personally, I have never been involved in any transactions whatsoever with the bank 'Assotsiatsiya' and have never been a person authorised to conduct any transactions on its behalf. Moreover, I have never been affiliated with the bank 'Assotsiatsiya' and am not personally acquainted with any of the employees of that organisation. I can assume this concerns routine market transactions carried out by the treasury of one of our companies. Lawyers will begin work once they have the opportunity to review the claim", were the words of Timur Turlov quoted by the press service of Freedom Holding in response to a journalist's enquiry.
It is noted that on 13 March, when the account seizure had not yet been reported, the publication Kursiv published an identical statement from Mr Turlov.
For context, it was previously reported that the DIA had applied to the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region seeking to recover losses from individuals involved in the siphoning of assets from the bank 'Assotsiatsiya'. Among them was listed the Chief Executive Officer of Freedom Holding Corp, Timur Turlov.