Oligarch says trust will protect his properties from sanctions

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has said he has put his property assets beyond the reach of UK sanctions by giving them in trust to his family. The oligarch, believed to be worth £15bn, has been linked to at least six properties in the UK valued at more than £100m. When Usmanov, who part-owns USM, the company that was Everton FC’s main sponsor, was placed on the UK sanctions list this month, ministers said it would cut him off from “significant UK interests, including mansions worth tens of millions”. A spokesman for Usmanov said today that most of his British property, as well as his yacht, had been “transferred into irrevocable trusts” to benefit his family. In a statement to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Usmanov’s spokesman implied that the trust now ultimately owned Beechwood House in Highgate, north London, valued at an estimated £48m, and the £34m, 16th-century Sutton Place estate in Surrey. Both properties were cited by the UK government when it announced that it was freezing Usmanov’s assets. The OCCRP Russian Asset Tracker programme identified £2.6bn of specific assets with links to Usmanov. The Times (£) The Guardian and The Guardian