The Russian owner of Monaco, Dmitry Rybolovlev, was detained at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Principality. He was placed in isolation just a few hours before the start of the game against Brugge. It is also reported that searches were carried out at the office and at his villa.
In September 2017, the Prosecutor General of Monaco opened a case of corruption and illegal influence. An investigation was published in one of the largest French newspapers, Le Monde: they wrote about Rybolovlev that he used connections with high officials to give the desired course to the court case.
What's the point
Rybolovlev bought paintings through the art dealer Ivo Bouvier. In 2015, a Russian oligarch filed a lawsuit against Bouvier, believing that he had misappropriated money by deception and was selling paintings at an inflated price. Soon the art dealer was caught by the police, but then released on bail. A few years later, the Prosecutor General's Office of Monaco became aware of the details of the correspondence between lawyer Rybolovlev and high officials of the principality; it was also known that the oligarch had become friends with the Minister of Justice.
In September, Rybolovlev, who was already beginning to be suspected of breaking the law, left Monaco, going on vacation to Los Angeles. Two months later, he was detained by the police in Monaco.
What Football Leaks Unearthed
A few days before the arrest, Football Leaks reported that Rybolovlev had illegally invested money in the club, circumventing FFP rules. The billionaire was helped by a marketing agency, offshore companies were involved in Hong Kong and the Virgin Islands, which UEFA did not know about. According to Football Leaks, Rybolovlev invested 140 million euros in bypassing the FFP.
Monaco issued a refutation of these data. The club said it was using an alternative strategy based on selling players to find the resources needed to operate under FFP rules.
Rumors of sale
A year ago, when the corruption scandal began, there were already rumors that Rybolovlev might sell Monaco, but then the owner called them fiction. In March of this year, Tuttosport reported that the Russian oligarch intends to earn 500 million euros for the sale of Monaco and buy Milan. “The club declares that there are currently no negotiations taking place regarding either the sale of AS Monaco FC or the purchase of AC Milan,” Monaco said. A new series of rumors began this fall. Now they will sound more and more often.
The club is falling lower
Monaco is second to last in Ligue 1 with only one win after 12 rounds. He was crushed in the Super Cup, took one point from three Champions League matches and sacked his manager.
In the fourth round of the Champions League, Monaco was on fire at home against Brugge 0:3 by the 24th minute.
The former owner of the Uralkali company, billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought the Monaco football club. Information about this was disseminated by the club's press service.
According to the publication monacomatin.mc, under the terms of the deal, Dmitry Rybolovlev will invest €100 million in the development of the club over four years.
According to the terms of the agreement, 66.67% of the shares of the Monaco football club are transferred to the control of MSI, a company owned by Rybolovlev. The owner of 33% of the club's shares remains the Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club (AS Monaco FC), representing the interests of the government of the Principality of Monaco.
How, information that Rybolovlev was buying FC Monaco appeared in the French press at the end of November. However, then the billionaire denied his interest in the team.
But in early December, newspapers reported that Rybolovlev met with Prince Albert II of Monaco to specifically discuss the deal to buy the club.
The new board of directors of Monaco included Dmitry Rybolovlev himself and his daughter, Ekaterina Rybolovleva. According to the club's new owner, he sees the acquisition of the club "not as a sale and purchase transaction, but as the beginning of an effective partnership for the development" of Monaco.
“I am a long-time football fan. Having lived in Monaco for quite a long time, I understand that the Monaco football club is not just one of the country’s sports teams, it is one of the main symbols of the Principality, it is its pride and its traditions. I believe the club has great potential. And I hope that the club will be able to fully implement it in the French and European football arenas,” RIA Novosti quotes the statement of the new owner.
In turn, Prince Albert II of Monaco noted that Monaco, faced with financial difficulties, “had to find a first-class partner to ensure successful development.” “The concluded agreement opens a new page in the history of the club, so dear to our principality. “I wish the team to return to the heights that in the past made it one of the pearls of Monaco’s sporting life,” said Albert II.
Monaco Football Club is one of the oldest teams in Europe. It was founded back in 1919. The club plays in the French football championship and represents Monaco on the international stage. The club became the champion of France seven times, but did not achieve any significant success in the international arena. And at the end of the 2010-2011 season, the club was completely relegated to the Second League, taking 18th place.
For a long time he was the main owner of the Uralkali enterprise, the largest Russian producer of potash fertilizers. But in June last year he sold the company to the head of Nafta Moscow Suleiman Kerimov, as well as Filaret Galchev and Alexander Nesis. After the deal, Rybolovlev’s share in Uralkali was reduced to 10%.
Rybolovlev is included in the list of the 200 richest Russians according to Forbes - in 2011, the magazine estimated his fortune at $9.5 billion. He is also the seventh richest resident of Switzerland, where he has lived since 1995. Rybolovlev currently lives in Monaco.
One autumn day in 2004, the Stamford Bridge stadium was crowded. London Chelsea, which was recently bought by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, was hosting another Premier League match. The game was watched not only by the newly appointed owner of the football club, but also by Dmitry Rybolovlev, a future member of the Forbes list and the owner of one of the world's largest fertilizer producers, Uralkali.
Enchanted Chelsea
“Dmitry then came to London on business and decided to go to football for the first time in his life,” says an acquaintance of Rybolovlev. He didn’t know Abramovich closely, so he bought a ticket to the stands, finding himself surrounded by ordinary English fans. Football captured the future billionaire. “Dmitry came to the idea that if he ever had the opportunity to become the owner of a football club, he would definitely take advantage of it,” recalls his friend. Since then, Rybolovlev began to closely follow the games of European clubs, fly to matches and rented a box at Old Trafford, the home stadium of Manchester United.
The opportunity presented itself at the end of 2011. By that time, Rybolovlev had sold a controlling stake in Uralkali and moved to Monte Carlo. The local club Monaco was experiencing a severe crisis and needed an investor. Not only was he relegated from the first division of the French championship, but he also hung at the very bottom of the second league standings, winning just one match out of 18. At the end of the 2010/2011 season, Monaco's losses amounted to almost €14 million, all significant players moved to other clubs. There is no trace left of the former greatness of the seven-time French champion, which once featured the legendary Fabien Barthez, George Weah, Thierry Henry and Jurgen Klinsmann.
“The next step would be relegation to the third league. This was perceived as a disgrace for the entire Principality of Monaco,” a person close to the club explains to Forbes.
Rybolovlev undertook to save Monaco, and in December 2011, the company Monaco Sport Invest (MSI), managed by a trust acting in the interests of the Rybolovlev family, invited Prince Albert II to enter into an agreement. The elite of the principality of the Russians were not afraid. Rybolovlev is not the first Russian businessman to invest in Monaco. In 1996, the Fedcominvest company, owned by Alexey Fedorychev, entered into a multi-year sponsorship contract with the club. A little later, Fedorychev became a co-owner of Dynamo Moscow, but in 2006 he lost interest in investing in sports. Fedcominvest still sponsors Monaco, but the contract amount is small, and the businessman himself has long lost interest in football, said a Forbes source familiar with Fedorychev.
As a result of the transaction, the Principality sold MSI a 66.7% stake in Monaco, provided that within four years the new owner of the club would invest at least €100 million in it. The new board of directors of Monaco included three representatives of the Principality and six representatives of MSI , including Rybolovlev, who was elected president of the club. The transaction amount was not officially announced. Rybolovlev did not want to tell Forbes about the purchase. But a person familiar with the terms of the agreement says that the controlling stake in Monaco was given for just €1. In January 2012, the newly appointed president, nicknamed Rybo by fans and the press, began to save the club.
Looking for
A few months before the deal, Rybolovlev met the former technical director of Spartak Moscow, Evgeny Smolentsev. The billionaire invited him to Monaco and asked him to advise on several issues. Rybolovlev was interested in how the football business works, says Smolentsev. He prepared a list of clubs attractive for investment for the former owner of Uralkali. One of them was Monaco. “There were no Russian clubs on the list,” Smolentsev clarifies. “Dmitry Evgenievich did not ask me about them, and I did not offer them, because domestic football, unfortunately, is still much inferior to European football and is deeply unprofitable.”
The ex-manager of Spartak did not participate in the negotiations on the purchase of Monaco, but when the deal was closed, Rybolovlev invited Smolentsev to become the executive director of the club. Rybo asked to strengthen the team, prevent it from relegation from the second league and prepare it for a return to the first. This was the plan for the next season and a half, and in the long term, Monaco management set an ambitious goal - to fight for first place in the championship and qualify for the Champions League. Only with such achievements could the club, according to Smolentsev’s forecasts, earn money from television broadcasts, UEFA prize money and attract sponsors.
During the transfer window in the winter of 2012, Rybolovlev spent about €15 million to strengthen the club. Nine players were bought, two of them - goalkeeper Daniel Subasic and midfielder Nabil Dirar - still play for Monaco. The billionaire personally delved into the intricacies of the football business. Smolentsev recalls that for the first two months he regularly met with Rybolovlev, who wanted to understand how much the players were actually worth, whether they were suitable for specific tasks and how to motivate them.
In March 2012, Smolentsev left Monaco. In a conversation with Forbes, he said that he did this for personal reasons, due to the need to be present in Russia. The club does not comment on Smolentsev’s departure. After Smolentsev, a personnel reshuffle began at Monaco: the club was managed in turn by the former general director of Club Brugge Philips Dhondt, Thor-Christian Carlsen, who had previously worked as a breeder at Zenit and sporting director at the Norwegian Fredrikstadt, and Konstantin Zyryanov, the former chairman Board of the Russian Credit Bank.
According to the results of the second half of the championship, Monaco rose from penultimate place in the table to eighth. In the off-season, the club was strengthened by the Argentinean Lucas Ocampos (the transfer amount was about €10 million), the Congolese Delvin Ndinga (€5 million), the Dane Jakob Poulsen (€1.5 million) and the Italian star coach Claudio Ranieri, who previously headed Valencia. Chelsea and Juventus. Ranieri's arrival immediately affected the results. In the 2012/2013 season, Monaco won the second league and returned to the first. But still, Rybolovlev was not very happy with the way the club’s management worked.
What didn’t suit Rybo about the actions of his subordinates? “He was looking for someone he could rely on,” explains an acquaintance of the billionaire. - Many Monaco managers were talented specialists, but each lacked some qualities to manage the club single-handedly. Some were well versed in football, others in finance. It was necessary to combine these qualities in one person and trust him completely.” After several unsuccessful attempts, Rybolovlev found such a manager.
New Year's offer
The President of Monaco spent the New Year holidays at the end of 2012 in the famous Swiss resort of Gstaad. At various times, dozens of famous and wealthy people, from Elizabeth Taylor and Madonna to George Soros and Bernie Ecclestone, vacationed in the local hotels and chalets. Among the acquaintances whom the Russian billionaire invited to join him in Gstaad was a former Foreign Ministry employee and former head of the export department of Uralkali, Vadim Vasiliev. Vasiliev left Uralkali back in 2002, but all this time he maintained relations with Rybolovlev and even flew with him to Manchester for football several times. On December 31, a few hours before the New Year, Rybolovlev gave a surprise to Vasiliev.
“Vadim, how about helping me manage Monaco? - asked Rybolovlev. “Although football is not your specialty, I think you can do it.”
Vasiliev agreed almost immediately. “It seemed to me that my experience in large companies and my skills as a negotiator could help the club,” he explains.
Having moved from Moscow to Monte Carlo, Vasiliev began to get up to speed in the winter of 2013 as an assistant to the club president and in eight months made a quick career at Monaco, first taking the post of sporting director, and then vice president and general director. Thanks to Ranieri's efforts, the club moved up the standings, approaching its cherished goal - returning to the first league. Things were much worse with management.
There was confusion in the club. “There wasn’t even a standard contract for football players. Everything depended on what document the agent of this or that player would offer the club,” admits Vasiliev. According to him, each department of Monaco decided for itself how to spend money, which at that time was already considerable: from the club’s official reports it follows that its expenses excluding transfers in the 2012/2013 season amounted to €68 million. The new management introduced strict financial discipline . “The kind that operates in any effective company,” explains Vasiliev.
But there was one more problem. The fact is that Monaco represents in the French championship actually another state, an offshore haven, thanks to which it pays minimal taxes, and to the treasury of the principality, and not France. For other clubs that, with the introduction of a 75% tax on income over €1 million, were forced to pay millions of euros (for example, PSG - €20.8 million, and Olympique Marseille - €4.4 million), this is an advantage Monaco has become a red rag. “You need to understand what the French football business thought of us,” Vasiliev explains. - The club was bought by a mysterious rich Russian, its management spent huge amounts of money on foreigners,, unlike others, enjoyed tax breaks and did not communicate at all with representatives of the football league. This could not but cause rejection.”
As a result, in the spring of 2013, the French professional league LFP (it includes 40 clubs of the first and second divisions) issued an ultimatum to Monaco: either the club moves its headquarters to France by the end of 2014 and, together with everyone else, begins to pay taxes at French rates, or he will be excluded from the championship.
Rybolovlev met this proposal with hostility. The billionaire’s position seemed logical: Monaco is a club of the principality and has been living according to its financial laws for 80 years, so moving is out of the question. “It was necessary to explain to the LFP participants that we are building an ambitious project that will bring not harm, but benefit to all French football,” explains Vasiliev. At negotiations with league representatives in Paris, he tried to convince sports officials that foreign stars, whom Monaco had already bought and would still buy, were increasing interest in the championship. Vasiliev assured that he would buy talented French football players from league clubs and pay taxes for them (in 2013–2015, Monaco spent more than €40 million on the purchase of French players). But negotiations in Paris were not enough: the distrust of the mysterious Russian from Monaco was too great. Rybolovlev personally met with the presidents of all the leading clubs in the championship and, through Vasiliev, who is fluent in French, repeated: “Monaco” in its current form will benefit the entire league.
In January 2014, the majority of league members listened to Rybo's arguments and proposed a compromise - allowing Monaco to remain in the jurisdiction of the principality, but compensating for the difference in tax contributions with a fine of €50 million. This amount should be paid in several tranches before the end of 2015 and distributed between other LFP clubs. Russian Monegasques accepted this option and regularly pay the fine.
But this is not the only major expense that Rybolovlev agreed to in order to return Monaco to the elite of European football. In 2013, the billionaire spent even larger sums on purchasing talented players.
Mystery shopper
In February 2013, Rybolovlev and Vasiliev flew to Madrid to negotiate with Radamel Falcao, the best striker in the Spanish championship, who was then playing for Atlético. “The meeting was organized for us by the famous Portuguese football agent Jorge Mendes,” says Vasiliev. The Colombian footballer made it clear that he was interested in moving to a new club, but first he would like to get to know Rybolovlev and find out what goals he sets for Monaco. The acquaintance took place in an atmosphere of secrecy: in order not to give rise to rumors, Rybo and Vasiliev, without attracting attention, arrived in the elite village where Mendes’ house was located. Having learned that the club plans to return to the first league of the French championship in 2013 and enter the fight for prizes, Falcao expressed interest. But before giving his consent, the football player asked Rybolovlev for a favor - to arrange for him and his wife, singer Lorelei Taron, a tour of Monaco and a meeting with Prince Albert.
“A lot depended on Falcao’s wife,” Vasiliev emphasizes. Fortunately for the club, the principality and the meeting with Albert made an impression on both Falcao and his wife. “During a confidential reception for Lorelei and Radamel, Albert II took a souvenir photograph with them and assured that Monaco loves football, appreciates Falcao and will be very happy about their move,” Vasiliev smiles. Returning to Madrid, the Colombian forward agreed to the move and asked Mendes to discuss financial terms. After two weeks of negotiations with Atlético management, the parties signed an agreement on the transfer of the player. Monaco has not announced the exact amount of the deal, but Forbes’ interlocutor close to the club knows that the purchase of Falcao cost Rybolovlev almost €60 million, and the forward’s salary has increased significantly. At that moment it was the seventh largest transfer in the history of world football.
Monaco's next big deal was the joint transfer of James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho for €70 million (€45 million for Rodriguez and €25 million for Moutinho). Both players played for Porto, and Vasiliev and Rybolovlev also held secret negotiations with them in the spring of 2013. Monaco announced grandiose purchases only in May, at the end of the seasons in the European championships. “After three such famous football players arrived at Monaco, it became much easier for us to negotiate transfers with other strong players,” admits Vasiliev. “Before this, many of them did not believe in the seriousness of our intentions.”
The same Mendesh helped Rybolovlev in finding new football players, says Forbes’ interlocutor, who is familiar with the football agent. The Portuguese still means a lot to Monaco, he argues, and decisions about important transfers usually cannot be done without his participation. The club approached the start of the French Championship in full combat readiness, having bought or leased Jeremy Toulalan, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Sergio Romero, Fabinho, Nicolas Izimat-Mirena and Ricardo Carvalho. The club’s expenses on salaries, according to official reports published on the LFP website, have tripled compared to the crisis year of 2011, to €94 million.
In the vanity fair, Rybo was second only to PSG in terms of costs for the club.
The Qatari sheikhs who own the Paris club spent even more on player salaries - €239 million.
Monaco played the 2013/2014 season brilliantly, finishing second in the championship and just behind PSG. The fans rejoiced: Monaco received a ticket to European competition for the first time in 10 years. Appetites also grew: Ranieri said he hoped to consolidate his success. “I don’t know how much money the club will spend on new players, but to succeed in the Champions League, we need 4-5 more players,” explained the Italian coach. Dmitry Rybolovlev had a different opinion. At the end of May 2014, Ranieri was suddenly fired. A little later, Rodriguez was sold, loaned to Falcao, and the club management announced a change in strategy.
"It was scary"
Rybolovlev knew that Ranieri would have to be fired, and Monaco would develop in a new way, 6-7 months before the coach’s resignation, Vasiliev assures. According to him, for the last year and a half, the billionaire has been devoting less time to the club, does not interfere in operational management, but still makes all important decisions himself.
The reason for the reversal was the financial fair play rules, which were adopted by UEFA in 2011, but came into force only in 2013. The essence of these rules is that clubs cannot spend more than they earn. In this way, UEFA is trying to protect European football from bankruptcies and is fighting unequal conditions of competition in championships. PSG and Manchester City were the first to feel the seriousness of the intentions of sports officials. Both clubs were fined €60 million. In addition, UEFA threatened that violators would henceforth be excluded from European competition.
“We realized that we cannot expose Monaco to the risks of serious sanctions. It was necessary to turn towards a more sustainable economic model - not to buy stars for tens of millions of euros, but, on the contrary, to grow them internally from inexpensive but talented young football players,” explains the club’s general director. Why couldn’t it be possible to change the development strategy and leave Ranieri, because he was able to lead the team from the second division to the Champions League in a year? The general director of Monaco thinks for a moment and answers: “He has a different approach - you give me money, I give you results.” Ranieri, Vasiliev believes, is used to working with expensive and experienced high-class players, relying less on young people. “Such a philosophy has a right to exist,” agrees the general director of Monaco. “She allowed us to quickly achieve results, but stopped coming due to the threat of UEFA punishment.”
In the winter of 2014, Vasiliev began searching for a new head coach. The most suitable candidate seemed to Vasiliev and Rybolovlev to be 39-year-old Leonardo Jardim. He led Sporting Lisbon, which at the end of the season showed the same result as Monaco - took second place in the Portuguese championship and qualified for the Champions League. Jardim is not afraid to work with young people and leads teams to victories without stars. Previously, he had the same successful story with Braga, says Vasiliev.
The Russians and the Portuguese shook hands and agreed that the management does not interfere in the training process, but makes all decisions on buying and selling players, and Jardim is building a competitive team mainly from young players.
The new season under the leadership of Jardim began with failures. According to the results of the first five rounds of the French Championship, Monaco was in penultimate place with four points. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Monaco management decided to transfer two key players - Rodriguez and Falcao. “After a successful performance at the World Cup (having scored six goals for the Colombian national team, James became the top scorer of the championship. - Forbes) turned into a star of the first magnitude. Initially, we did not plan to sell him so quickly, but when we received a lucrative offer from Real and saw that the player himself really wanted to move to the Madrid club, we entered into negotiations. Such an opportunity could not be missed,” notes Vasiliev. The value of the deal between Monaco and Real Madrid was €80 million. This is the fifth largest transfer in the history of world football. Monaco did not sell Falcao, but leased him to Manchester United for €10 million.
In the fall of 2014, a hail of criticism fell on Rybolovlev. “Nobody understood what we were doing,” Vasiliev says with disappointment.
It came to a showdown: after Falcao moved to England, disgruntled Monaco fans demanded a meeting with the club's management. They shouted, demanded a refund for the purchased season tickets, and were outraged that the Russian owners had sold the best players. Vasiliev cooled the ardor of the Monegasques by recalling the recent past. “Do you remember where the club was before Rybolovlev came? You don't want Monaco to go back there, do you? - he asked. “Give us time, we know what we are doing.”
The start of the season turned out to be a failure, Vasiliev admits. “To be honest, it was scary both for Jardim, who had never had such bad starts before, and for us,” says the club’s general director. “But I let the coach know that we believe in him and are ready to wait.”
"We are not Chelsea"
The bet on Jardim ultimately worked. Already in mid-September, Monaco began to win and climb up the standings. The turning point in the Champions League, according to Vasiliev, was the last game in the group stage with Zenit. The match at the Stade Louis II in Monte Carlo was decisive: its winner advanced to the 1/8 finals. The Monaco players played the first half nervously, in the end Zenit began to press them to the goal and almost scored a goal. Vasiliev, who was sitting in the box with Rybolovlev and Prince Albert, could not stand the tension, during the break he went into the locker room and in harsh terms expressed to the players everything that he thought about them at that moment. “I don’t remember the exact words, but words are not important here, emotions are important. I screamed because otherwise I wouldn’t have reached the players. This happened for the first time in two years of work,” Vasiliev justifies himself. “Victory had to be achieved at any cost.” The suggestion worked: in the second half, Monaco scored two goals and qualified for the Champions League playoffs.
The next six months were triumphant for Jardim and the Monaco management. In the French Championship, the club took third place, and in the Champions League they beat London's Arsenal and gave a worthy rebuff to Juventus in the quarter finals, losing on aggregate with a minimum score of 1:0. “Today no one has any complaints or questions against us. The fans are happy with the result, Jardim is recognized as one of the most talented young coaches, we are among the eight strongest teams in Europe. Our new strategy has worked,” says the club’s general director.
Is this a good strategy if you look at Monaco's financial results? UEFA failed to escape punishment. In May, Monaco was fined €13 million, of which €10 million was suspended and could be waived if fair play rules are met over the next three years. Vasiliev admits that the club spends more than it earns, but emphasizes: “We are approaching zero.” Reports for the 2014/2015 season have not yet been published, so the financial condition of the club can only be judged from the words of the Monaco management and from information in the media. The most significant source of income is money from transfers and rentals of football players. From the sale of only two players - Rodriguez and Kondogbia (bought by Inter Milan in June 2015) - Monaco received almost €130 million. Other transfers last season brought, according to Vasiliev, approximately €10 million. About €50 million the club earned money thanks to its performance in the Champions League (prizes for matches and money for television broadcasts). Monaco received €30 million for the rights to telecast matches of the French championship. The club's income from sponsorship contracts, sales of merchandise and tickets amounted to €25 million. Monaco does not disclose its expenses.
“Dmitry Evgenievich once admitted that managing a football club is more difficult than such a colossus as Uralkali,” Vasiliev laughs. “Making a football club successful and profitable at the same time is a very difficult task, but we are not giving up on it.”
Monaco plans to work more with sponsors, to buy and educate talented young people, who can then be sold at a profit. The club’s general director calls the “Louis the Second” stadium the “sore spot” of the club. Vasiliev complains that it is “morally outdated” and does not allow them to receive the income that their stadiums bring to popular European clubs (for example, the Catalan Barcelona earned €116 million from ticket sales last season). There are a lot of wealthy audiences in Monaco, but there are not enough comfortable boxes at the stadium - there are only ten of them, two of which belong to Rybolovlev and Prince Albert. “We need to rebuild the stadium, reorient it towards the VIP public, but for now we are just working on the reconstruction project,” admits Vasiliev.
Monaco's plans for the future, according to its general director, are realistic. “We are not Chelsea or Real Madrid and will never become a super club that fights every year for the championship and victory in the Champions League final,” he does not hide. The club's goals are more modest - to take prizes in the French championship and try to perform well in European competitions.
Became persona non grata at the Prince's Palace of Monaco. The Russian businessman was asked not to appear at the residence because of the corruption scandal that erupted around his person. Subsequently, Rybolovlev may be prohibited from entering the territory of the principality at all. All high-ranking officials of Monaco and personally Prince Albert II broke off relations with the billionaire.
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What is the reason
It all started in 2003, when Rybolovlev was introduced to a Swiss art designer Yves Bouvier. He helped Rybolovlev replenish the collection of paintings that the Russian billionaire bought for a lot of money - among them original works by Da Vinci, van Gogh, Picasso and Modigliani. However, in 2015, charges of fraud were brought against Bouvier - he sold Rybolovlev masterpieces worth more than $2 billion, indicating inflated figures in the accounts and pocketing the difference. According to the indictment, Bouvier shared his “commissions” with Rybolovlev’s translator Tanya Rappo, who also did not hesitate to lead a businessman who did not speak English or French by the nose.
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Since then, there has been a trial that has not yet been completed. However, in the last month the investigation has taken an unexpected turn. Rybolovlev himself became the accused. According to the French publication Le Monde, the Russian billionaire used his connections to put serious pressure on the investigative authorities and the police of Monaco to direct the case in the right direction. On September 22, the Minister of Justice of the Principality was detained Philip Narmino. A week earlier, he resigned from his post after the media published his correspondence with Rybolovlev’s lawyer Tatiana Bersheda. As it turned out, Narmino received gifts from Rybolovlev and stayed at his residence in Switzerland.
It is interesting that this information fell into the hands of the investigation largely due to the carelessness of Rybolovlev’s lawyer Tatyana Bersheda. She handed the judge her smartphone with a recording of Tanya Rappo’s testimony about Bouvier’s guilt. However, the judge ordered to check all the information in the memory of the lawyer’s phone. It was there that active correspondence was discovered with various high-ranking officials and police officers who helped move the “Bouvier case” in the right direction.
The case initiated by Rybolovlev against Bouvier led the investigation to the revelation of the illegal activities of the Russian billionaire himself - he is now accused of bribing officials and high-ranking police officers.
Figure of Rybolovlev
- the former owner of Uralkali, who in 2010 sold his share of the company and moved to Monaco, where he acquired 66.7% of the shares of the local club on the condition that he would invest 100 million euros in it in the next four years. The board of directors included three representatives of the principality and six representatives of the businessman’s company, including himself. Rybolovlev repeatedly tried to obtain Monegasque citizenship, but he failed. Since 2012, Monaco has spent about 500 million euros on transfer acquisitions (according to Transfermarkt.de). Rybolovlev’s own fortune is estimated at $7.3 billion.
How are Monaco doing now?
After winning Ligue 1 (their first title in 17 years) and a successful run in the Champions League last season, Monaco are undergoing a period of rebuilding. In the summer transfer window, the club sold players for a total of 177.5 million euros (excluding the transfer Design to PSG, for which the Parisians will pay 180 million next summer). After seven rounds, the team is in second place in the standings, one point behind PSG. In the Champions League, the Monegasques drew 1:1 with Leipzig in the first round, and on September 26 they will meet with Porto.
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Possible consequences
Rybolovlev is currently on vacation in Los Angeles, and it is not yet known whether he will be able to return to Monaco in the near future. Rybolovlev may be banned from entering the territory of the principality, as a result of which he will not be able to conduct activities here. Including those related to football. Prince Albert and high-ranking officials have already severed all contacts with the billionaire, but this may not be the end of the matter. The consequences that will await Rybolovlev if his guilt is officially proven have not yet been reported.
The most expensive football player in Russia, Alexander Golovin, chose Monaco to continue his career. And now everyone who cares about the fate of the Russian national team will have to follow the club from the tiny principality. “KP” has picked up a few facts about Monaco that will help you get involved faster.
Russian owner Rybolovlev. Who is this?
Two Russian billionaires were vying for Golovin: Roman Abramovich's Chelsea and Dmitry Rybolovlev's Monaco were vying for the midfielder. A businessman from Perm won. Rybolovlev made a fortune by buying shares of Uralkali in the 1990s. In 2010, he sold them to the structures of Suleiman Kerimov for about 5.3 billion dollars and moved to Monte Carlo. Rybolovlev’s fortune is now estimated at $6.8 billion, placing him 18th on the Forbes list of the richest people in Russia.
In Monaco, Rybolovlev acquired the princely football club in 2011. Everyone thought that in order to get legalized, become one of the people in Monte Carlo and earn the favor of Prince Albert, a great sports fan. And Rybolovlev unexpectedly, in just three years, turned a loss-making second league team into a money-making machine.
Selling Mbappe or how does Monaco make money?
Monaco has become keen on buying up young football players, training them and bringing them to the top level, so that they can then resell them to monster clubs like PSG, Chelsea and Manchester United. The Monegasques made 500 million euros on this! This is very, very cool.
The list of Monaco's most successful deals is impressive.
They bought 17-year-old Anthony Martial from Lyon for only 5 million euros, and two years later they sold him to Manchester United for 60 million euros.
Bernardo Silva was bought from Benfica for 15.8 million euros, and then sold to Man City for 50 million euros.
Benjamin Mendy was bought for 12 million euros from Marseille, and sold to the same Man City for 57 million euros.
Timue Bakayoko was acquired from Rennes for 8 million euros, and three years later he was added to Chelsea for 45 million euros.
Golovin was one of the three main discoveries of the 2018 World Cup
The 22-year-old midfielder of the Russian national team played a key role in the victory of the Russian national team over the Spanish team in the 1/8 finals match