Russian court seizes $14 million in assets from Novosibirsk lawmaker

A court in Novosibirsk has increased the value of seized assets belonging to city council deputy and developer Alexey Dzhulay to approximately 1.3 billion roubles, following a successful appeal by prosecutors, according to Russia’s regional prosecutor’s office, cited by Russian media.

The Novosibirsk Regional Court approved the prosecution’s request to expand the asset freeze from an initial amount of around 600 million roubles ($6.5 million), which had been imposed in January, to a total of 1.3 billion rubles, equivalent to roughly $14 million.

Dzhulay, who is the founder and head of the Diskus group of companies, is under investigation over allegations related to large-scale financial misconduct in the housing construction sector.

According to investigators, he raised funds from private individuals through housing construction cooperatives to finance the development of multi-apartment residential buildings. However, the collected funds were allegedly redirected to companies under his control, while the promised construction projects were not completed.

The case involves more than 800 victims, with total damages estimated at approximately 1.2 billion rubles, or about $13 million.

By Tamilla Hasanova