Putin ally pleaded poverty in court but had £214m in hidden wealth
- - Putin ally pleaded poverty in court but had £214m in hidden wealth
Telegraph reportersNovember 10, 2025 at 11:34 PM
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Mr Sloutsker claimed to be in ‘severe financial hardship’
A former Russian senator and Putin ally who pleaded poverty to a court in fact had at least £214m in hidden wealth.
Vladimir Sloutsker was ordered to pay £25 million to his wife by a High Court judge a month before he died of cancer.
Mr Justice Garrido said, in a judgment written in August but published yesterday, that Mr Sloutsker had claimed to be in “severe financial hardship” after having assets in Russia stolen.
This included Mr Sloutsker trying to “hide” his interest in land in Moscow, worth £150 million, while the family home in London was a “very grand” 2,790 square-metre, nine-bedroom house with a heated indoor pool, massage and cinema rooms, wine cellar, gym and a four-car garage.
The judge said that “at a minimum”, Mr Sloutsker had £17 million in the family home, £4 million in a Swiss bank account, a home in Moscow worth £22.5 million, a development site also in Moscow worth £150 million, £17 million of investments in US private equity and a further £4 million in art.
He also detailed how the family spent hundreds of thousands on travelling, including a 400,000-euro summer holiday to Tuscany and spending 100,000 US dollars on a family trip to Dubai.
Of the Moscow development site, Mr Justice Garrido said: “There is little doubt in my mind that the varied and overall false presentation which Mr Sloutsker attempted to encourage the court to adopt in respect of this land is simply intended to hide a valuable asset in which he retains the beneficial interest through various third-party entities, the purpose of which, as with all these transactions, is simply to disguise the existence of that very beneficial interest.”
He described Mr Sloutsker as a “dishonest witness” while he “attempted to mislead” the court about his Moscow home.
Mr Justice Garrido relaxed the usual practice of anonymising people in the family court because of “serious and repeated litigation misconduct”.
Having died on September 26, the responsibility for the £25 million owed to Alona Sloutsker will now fall to Mr Sloutsker’s estate.
Mr Sloutsker objected to the order at an earlier hearing because he had a pre-nuptial agreement with his wife.
But Mr Justice Garrido found this to be “neither fair nor one that should be upheld”.
He also said that Mrs Sloutsker was “pressured” into signing the agreement, which she did not fully understand and did not receive legal advice on.
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