Russia's Deposit Insurance Agency has obtained a French court order to seize a castle in France owned by Russian billionaire Sergei Pugachyov to repay debts to depositors of the tycoon’s embattled bank, RBC daily newspaper said on Thursday.
The Russian regulator put a lien on Chateau de Gairaut to cover investor losses on deposits in failed International Industrial Bank (IIB), RBC said, citing sources and France's Le Monde newspaper.
The chateau, built at the beginning of the 20th century, has been preliminarily valued at 13.6 million euros. Le Monde sources said that Pugachyov also owned a number of buildings near Nice worth a total of eight million euros.
Russia's IIB was declared bankrupt in November 2010 after failing to meet Central Bank requirements and repay creditors. IIB's problems started after it went into technical default on 200 million euros in Eurobonds in July 2010. The bank also cross-defaulted on a 200-million euro Eurobond issue maturing in 2013.
IIB owes creditors more than 80 billion rubles ($2.6 billion), according to Central Bank data.
