The German investigative authorities in pursuit of the Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov have had to accept another defeat. The district court of Frankfurt declared the search of the offices of Usmanov’s Munich lawyers unlawful, handing the Uzbek-born oligarch another legal victory in his efforts to clear his name, Die Zeit reported on September 4.

“The Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main has ruled that a January 2023 warrant issued by the District Court of Frankfurt am Main to search the office of the Munich law firm representing Alisher Usmanov in Germany was unlawful and has annulled the search warrant. The Regional Court’s decision was based on the absence of evidence to support the initial suspicion that a crime had been committed,” the court said in its summary.

In the autumn of 2022, German prosecutors opened a criminal case against the attorneys of a Munich law firm representing Usmanov, who is fighting a legal battle to be removed from the EU sanctions list as well as allegations by the German prosecutor’s office that he is guilty of money laundering and tax evasion. The firm does not disclose its name out of fear for its reputation. The prosecutor's office suspected the attorneys of violating the German Foreign Trade and Payments Act and providing economic resources to Usmanov, who is under EU sanctions. The lawyers received a €100,000 advance payment. The prosecutors suspected that this money was intended for purposes other than paying fees, without special authorisation from the German Federal Bank. If Usmanov had used this money for his own purposes, then that would have violated EU sanctions.

When these suspicions were raised, the lawyers promptly provided evidence that the money was indeed meant for the payment of legal fees, which is allowed under EU law, but despite this, the Frankfurt prosecutor's office obtained a search warrant. As reported in more detail by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in late February, more than a dozen police officers and prosecutors thoroughly searched the office of the law firm, where the “stunned lawyers” were told that they were “suspected of violating sanctions because they accepted money for their legal services that could be of use to Usmanov” The investigators declined to take into consideration the letter from the Bundesbank, which, as the supervisory body responsible for enforcing sanctions, confirmed the legality of the payments to this law firm from a non-sanctioned entity in Moscow.

The same investigation team already raided a villa on Tegernsee in the German spa town of Rottach-Egern last September to gather evidence against Usmanov, and took the German press along with it during the raid. The investigation began to fall apart earlier this year in May when a German court ruled that the search of the Tegernsee villa was illegal since the issuance of the warrant was based on insufficient evidence of wrongdoing and on little more than hearsay. Many of the accusations presented as evidence of Usmanov’s culpability were drawn from a video produced by the investigation team of jailed Russian opposition blogger and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny that was released on YouTube.

Now, the Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main concluded that the prosecutor's office had no initial suspicion of a crime and described the prosecutor's arguments as “vague suspicions” and “unsubstantiated speculation.” The judges determined the illegality of the search and constituted it as an encroachment on fundamental civil rights. In addition, the court found the allegations of sanctions circumvention to be groundless. Further, the court emphasised that everyone has the right to an effective legal defence, which clearly includes the ability to render payment for attorney fees. The court also noted that support provided by attorneys does not fall under the definition of “economic resources” in the EU Regulation, the court said in its decision. A spokesperson for Mr Usmanov in a comment to bne Intellinews welcomed the court’s decision saying that it confirms the groundlessness of the accusations against the billionaire. He expressed hope that Usmanov's position will be heard in the German constitutional court, where a complaint has been filed that raises the question of whether guarantees of human dignity within the framework of Germany's so-called ‘constitutional identity’ are compatible with the personal EU sanctions imposed against the tycoon.