A court in Monaco found Rybolovlev not guilty of complicity in invasion of privacy

The Monaco court closed one of the cases in the conflict between the owner of the Monaco football club Dmitry Rybolovlev and his art dealer Yves Bouvier. The investigation was conducted for several years against the businessman himself and his lawyer Tatyana Bersheda, who were accused of encroaching on the privacy of Tanya Rappo, Mr. Bouvier’s girlfriend. The judges ruled that there was no corpus delicti and closed the case against the billionaire, the newspaper reported Monaco-Matin. The decision was made on November 15 and came into force on November 22, at the end of the appeal period.

Dmitry Rybolovlev’s lawyers Thomas Jaccardi and Martin Reynaud confirmed that Monaco’s judicial investigators issued a decision to terminate the criminal case for complicity in an invasion of privacy against Dmitry Rybolovlev.

“Dmitry Rybolovlev has declared his innocence from the day the charges were brought against him. There were no facts to hold him accountable. The investigating judges took this into account and made the only possible decision. There will be no trial of Dmitry Rybolovlev. He is finally acquitted,” noted Messrs. Jaccardi and Reynaud.

A dispute between a Swiss art dealer and Dmitry Rybolovlev arose over the cost of paintings purchased for a Russian businessman. He accuses Yves Bouvier of making incredible profits from their sale. One of the investigations within the framework of this conflict was related to a resident of Monaco, Tanya Rappo, who is the godmother of one of the daughters of the Rybolovlev couple. It was she who, in the early 2000s, introduced the art dealer Dmitry Rybolovlev, who wanted to collect a collection of works of art.

In January 2015, Mr. Rybolovlev filed a fraud claim against Bouvier in Monaco. On February 25, the art dealer was placed in custody, as was Tanya Rappo, whom Mr. Rybolovlev accused of intermediary in the crime. On February 3, 2017, Dmitry Rybolovlev’s lawyer Tatyana Bersheda appeared at the public security authorities to hand over a ten-minute recording, which she considered evidence of collaboration between Tanya Rappo and Yves Bouvier. The recording was made during a private dinner at Dmitry Rybolovlev’s house in Monaco on February 23, 2015.

In response, Tanya Rappo filed a complaint against Tatiana Bersheda for violating the right to respect for private and family life. The complaint also included Dmitry Rybolovlev and former Monaco Prosecutor General Jean-Pierre Drenault, accused of complicity. The court also dismissed the case against him.