Support The Moscow Times!

Sobchak Seeks Return of $1.7M Seized in Search

Ksenia Sobchak makes light of the June 11 search of her apartment in a commercial for Tinkoff Credit Systems parodying the incident.

Socialite and opposition activist Ksenia Sobchak is going to court to seek the return of $1.7 million in cash taken by investigators in a search of her apartment last month.

Sobchak's lawyer Genri Reznik said Thursday that they had filed a complaint regarding investigative authorities' "illegal seizure and holding" of Sobchak's money, according to the Rapsi news agency.

Authorities seized about 1 million euros, $480,000, and 480,000 rubles in cash in more than 100 envelopes during a search of Sobchak's apartment on June 11. The raid was conducted as part of an investigation related to a May 6 opposition rally on Bolotnaya Ploshchad that ended in clashes between protesters and police.

A week after the seizure, investigators said they were considering charging Sobchak with tax evasion, saying the total was several times more than her declared 2011 income of $210,000, media reports said.

Reznik said the Basmanny District Court where the suit was filed had set a court date for August 8 rather than within five days of the complaint's being filed. He told Izvestia he filed the complaint July 3, calling the delayed hearing a violation of procedure.

Sobchak wrote Thursday on Twitter that she was awaiting a decision on the suit.

"My lawyers have filed a claim to return my money, which was taken without any explanation. We are waiting for what the Basmanny District Court will say," she wrote.

Sobchak poked fun at the police raid in a recent commercial for Tinkoff Credit Systems in which masked men enter her apartment searching for cash but find only an envelope with a credit card inside.

Read more