Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov, a major owner of the tour operator TUI, moved shares in the company worth $1.4 billion to the British Virgin Islands on February 28 – the same day the EU imposed sanctions against him, Bloomberg reports.

Alexei Mordashov is the main owner of the steel company Severstal, which has supplied iron ore to SSAB, and has been assessed by Forbes as Russia's richest man with a fortune of just over $29 billion. The recently imposed sanctions against him have been justified, among other things, by the fact that Rossiya Bank, of which Alexei Mordashov is one of the owners, has, according to the EU, functioned as a "house bank" for Vladimir Putin.

The oligarch has also been the main owner of the tour operator TUI for 15 years, with around 34 percent of the shares. After the sanctions against him were imposed, he left TUI's board on March 2 and two days earlier, on February 28, he sold his entire holding in the company.

Most of The post, a 30 percent stake, was sold to the company Ondero while the remaining 4 percent was purchased by the Russian investment company Severgroup. However, Alexei Mordashov is considered to have retained control of the shares in practice as Severgroup is owned by him and, according to Bloomberg, he also has influence over Ondero, which is based in the British Virgin Islands.

Alexei Mordashev, like several other Russian oligarchs, has come under increasing pressure as a result of international sanctions imposed on individuals with links to Putin's regime. Italian authorities said on Friday they had seized a yacht worth 65 million euros belonging to the oligarch.

Source: Nyhetsbyrån Direkt