Russian court confiscates Sochi businessman's assets for state revenue

The October District Court in Krasnodar considered a lawsuit by the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation against Sochi businessman Vigen Sarkisyan and 18 affiliated individuals and legal entities.

The supervisory body requested the court to turn property belonging to Sarkisyan into state income to compensate for damages recovered from him by a decision of the Goryacheklyuchevskoy City Court in the amount of 4,246,905,000 rubles (approximately $47.2 million at current rates) in favor of the Russian Federation, and 1,997,860,097 rubles (approximately $22.2 million at current rates) as compensation for environmental damage in favor of Sochi.

After reviewing the case materials, the court granted the lawsuit.

Turned into the income of the Russian Federation were: the Crowne Plaza hotel in Krasnodar, shares in JSC «Sanatorium »Goryachy Klyuch«» and JSC «Sanatorium »Predgorye Kavkaza«», and 13 real estate properties located in the territories of Adygea, Moscow, and Krasnodar Krai. The court«s decision is subject to immediate execution, according to the united press service of the courts of Krasnodar Krai.

Recall that in May 2025, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs initiated a criminal case against the well-known Sochi businessman Vigen Sarkisyan; he is suspected of fraudulently appropriating a 1.9-hectare plot of land in Sochi. The damage to the state was estimated at 300 million rubles (approximately $3.3 million at current rates). Previously, shares in the «Teplichny» combine were seized from the businessman, and the Prosecutor General«s Office filed a lawsuit to recover 5.7 billion rubles (approximately $63.3 million at current rates) from Sarkisyan and affiliated persons as compensation for damage from housing construction in Adler on the site of the former »Chkalovsky« state farm.

The investigative department of the Sochi UMVD is investigating a criminal case against Sarkisyan and five other individuals on suspicion of especially large-scale fraud (Part 4, Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code). This concerns a plot in Kudepsta where a construction market was located for many years.

The investigation believes that a company linked to Vigen Sarkisyan in 2018 illegally acquired the right to long-term lease of land that is federally owned. The damage caused to the state is estimated at 300 million rubles (approximately $3.3 million at current rates).

The plot is located in the second zone of the resort«s sanitary protection district with a permitted use type—for the development of the »Kudepsta-3« microdistrict. In 2006, it was leased to the »Kudepsta« agrofirm. Later, the lease right was transferred several times from one company to another. In December 2015, the Arbitration Court of Krasnodar Krai, at the suit of Rosimushchestvo, terminated the original contract, and the lease right of the last right holder, LLC »StroyGrupp«, was terminated.

The investigation believes that, well aware of this, the perpetrators, including Vigen Sarkisyan, fabricated a forged contract dated November 2014, according to which the rights to the plot allegedly transferred to their accomplice Alexey Sergeyev. He applied to the Pervomaysky District Court in Krasnodar, which recognized the contract as valid. In August 2018, the lease right transferred to LLC «Unistroy», whose founder became a relative of Vigen Sarkisyan. Thus, the investigation believes, the perpetrators fraudulently acquired rights to state property.

Sarkisyan is outside Russia.