Architect who designed Putin’s infamous ‘£1billion Black Sea palace’ has assets worth £118million – including a helicopter and huge piles of cash – seized by Italian cops
- Lanfranco Cirillo, 63, who designed Putin’s luxury Black Sea estate, had assets worth over £118 million seized by Italy’s tax police in the town of Brescia
- Cirillo had a helicopter, luxurious homes and huge piles of cash seized
- He allegedly broke Italy tax rules by failing to declare income of millions of euros
An architect who designed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s infamous ‘£1billion Black Sea Palace’ has had his assets worth over £118 million seized by Italy’s tax police.
Lanfranco Cirillo, 63, had a helicopter, luxurious homes, huge piles of cash and jewellery seized after he allegedly broke Italian tax rules.
Italian police also confiscated works of modern and contemporary art by famous artists such as Picasso, Kandinsky, De Chirico and Cezanne.
Cirillo is under investigation for tax crimes, money laundering and the fraudulent transfer of funds, for a total amount of over 141 million euros (£118 million).
Lanfranco Cirillo, 63, (pictured) had a helicopter, luxurious homes, huge piles of cash and jewellery seized after he allegedly broke Italian tax rules
Italian police with piles of cash seized from Cirillo, who designed Putin’s infamous Black Sea estate
Cirillo, who designed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s infamous ‘£1billion Black Sea Palace’ (pictured), has had his assets worth over £118 million seized by Italy’s tax police.
The tax police said on Wednesday it had seized the assets from a ‘well-known professional’ from his villa in Brescia, a town in northern Italy, citing alleged tax offences, without naming Cirillo.
But a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that the assets belonged to Cirillo, who had designed a grand estate on the Black Sea in Russia that became known as ‘Putin’s palace’ after a businessman alleged the estate was built for Putin.
Italian investigators found that Cirillo had amassed ‘significant manifestations of wealth that were completely disproportionate to the declared taxable income’, reports newspaper Il Messaggero.
Cirillo allegedly failed to declare an income of tens of millions of euros from 2013 to 2019.
A lawyer for Cirillo did not respond when contacted by Reuters.
Cirillo designed President Putin’s £1billion palace and the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has claimed a strip club, casino and a theatre are among a series of luxurious rooms inside the estate.
The opposition figure has accused Putin of owning the estate, which he claims cost £1billion and was allegedly funded through an elaborate corruption scheme involving Putin’s inner circle.
Italian police seized a number of pieces of jewellery from Cirillo’s villa in Brescia, Italy
Cirillo is under investigation for tax crimes, money laundering and the fraudulent transfer of funds, for a total amount of over 141 million euros (£118 million). Pictured: Piles of cash seized from Cirillo’s villa in Italy
Italy’s tax police have seized assets worth over 141 million euros (£118 million) from an architect linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) over allegedly breaking Italian tax rules, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday
Navalny claims the estate and grounds that Russian media had linked to Putin years ago was paid for ‘with the largest bribe in history’.
He also alleges that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) owns some 7,000 hectares of land surrounding the property and that the complex was financed by Putin’s close allies, including Igor Sechin, chief of Russian oil giant Rosneft, and billionaire tycoon Gennady Timchenko.
In a 2017 YouTube video, Navalny accused then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling a luxury property empire.
The existence of the Black Sea property and its links to Putin first became known in 2010 when whistle-blower businessman Sergei Kolesnikov described them in a public letter to Medvedev.
In an interview with Italian televison earlier this year, Cirillo said he had designed the building but said it was commissioned by a private group and he had had no dealings with Putin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has brushed aside the claims in comments to the state news agency RIA Novosti, calling them ‘untrue’.
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