Dmitriy Rybolovlev, the Russian billionaire and majority proprietor of the French soccer membership AS Monaco, has been cleared of all legal proceedings in Monaco, following a ruling by the principality’s Courtroom of Attraction on February 27. The choice additionally exonerates his lawyer, Tetiana Bersheda, bringing an finish to a seven-year authorized saga tied to allegations of influence-peddling within the high-stakes artwork market.
The case hinged on messages taken from Bersheda’s telephone—proof that the European Courtroom of Human Rights (ECHR) dominated in 2024 had been obtained unlawfully. Citing that ruling, the Monaco court docket decided that the proceedings have been “irreparably flawed” and ordered their annulment. The judgment aligns with a similar decision by Swiss prosecutors, who dismissed associated fees in late 2024.
The ECHR discovered that Monaco’s investigative authorities had overstepped authorized boundaries, authorizing a sweeping information extraction from Bersheda’s telephone with out clear limitations. This resulted within the indiscriminate assortment of messages, together with beforehand deleted ones, violating each privateness rights and attorney-client privilege.
Rybolovlev and Bersheda have for years maintained their innocence. In a press launch, their attorneys described the fees as “baseless.” In separate proceedings, Rybolovlev was cleared in November 2023, whereas Bersheda was acquitted in March 2024 over allegations of privacy violations. In a press launch their attorneys welcomed the ruling as a long-overdue vindication.
“The one conceivable resolution was to annul the entire irreparably flawed proceedings (primarily based on the illegal extraction and use of the lawyer’s telephone), by which Dmitriy Rybolovlev was unjustly indicted in 2018” Martin Reynard, Rybolovlev’s present lawyer, informed ARTnews in an e-mail.
The case had its roots in a high-profile feud between Rybolovlev and Swiss artwork seller Yves Bouvier, whom the billionaire accused of overcharging him by practically $1 billion on a string of blue-chip artwork purchases, together with works by, Modigliani, Picasso, Klimt, and most famously, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi. Rybolovlev’s authorized battles—and his alleged efforts to leverage Monaco’s judicial and political elite—turned the dispute right into a wider scandal, also known as “MonacoGate.”
Whereas the Monaco proceedings have now been annulled, Rybolovlev has confronted authorized setbacks elsewhere. Swiss prosecutors recently dismissed charges that he illegally influenced Bouvier’s 2015 arrest in Monaco, concluding that there was no proof to justify an indictment. Rybolovlev has additionally pursued authorized motion in a number of jurisdictions, however courts in Switzerland, Singapore, and New York have dominated towards him, together with a failed attempt to carry Sotheby’s accountable for Bouvier’s alleged fraud.
With this ruling, Rybolovlev’s authorized troubles look like over. Whether or not the choice closes the e-book on his long-running dispute with Bouvier, nevertheless, stays to be seen.
