Yesterday, Europol announced it had caught a “high-profile” Ukrainian fugitive on October 5 who had been enjoying a “lavish lifestyle in France” and is “thought to be behind a complex case of international fraud and money laundering”.
Three other men were arrested in the swoop – two Ukrainians and a Moldavian. Two Ukrainian women have been placed under investigation.
Gendarmes also seized €4.6 million (£4m) of jewels and property, including a medieval castle identified by the Telegraph as Chateau de la Rochepot in the wine growing Côte d’Or – which until recently belonged to heirs of former French president Sadi Carnot.
In the haul were three unnamed Dali works.
Locals said the vintage Rolls was seen towed from the castle in recent days.
While not named by the European Union’s law enforcement agency, one Ukraine-based reporter in Radio Free Europe said the suspect was Dmytro Malinovskiy, an Odessa-based businessman who has been wanted by police in Ukraine since 2015 in connection with a major fraud and forgery case involving defense ministry property in the Black Sea port city.
Europol said that the French authorities launched in January an investigation into alleged suspicious transactions surrounding the purchase of a “€3 million castle in the Burgundy region by a Luxembourg-based company”.
It was later established that the ultimate owner was wanted in Ukraine for alleged large-scale corruption but had managed to evade justice by producing "forged death certificates," Europol said.
The Hague-based agency said it had coordinated with French, Ukrainian and Luxembourg authorities to establish that the suspect “was not only alive but was enjoying a lavish lifestyle in France”.
Officials in Ukraine have not commented publicly on the Europol statement.
