EU General Court Annuls Sanctions Listing of Alfa Group Founder's Ex-Wife
The EU General Court on Oct. 25 annulled the listing of the ex-wife of Alfa Group founder Mikhail Fridman, referred to only as "QF" in the opinion, according to an unofficial translation. Originally sanctioned in April 2022, QF was delisted five months later. The court annulled her original listing. QF claimed the European Council based its decision on evidence lacking probative value and erroneously assessed the facts.
The court said the evidence, which included information from a supposedly "poorly translated article" found online, didn't lack probative value. The mere fact the evidence is taken directly from commercial internet sites that aggregate information from other sites to generate traffic isn't enough to "deprive this evidence of any probative value," the court said. Additionally, given the situation in Ukraine and Russia and the council's lack of powers to investigate in third countries, the evidence's probative value can't be discounted, the court said.
Even considering this evidence, the council's designation of QF cannot stand, the court ruled. The article wasn't enough to show the woman's ex-husband was her "main source of financing" since she moved to Paris. While at one time Fridman was QF's main source of financing, holding QF to this same conclusion today "would lead to the applicant's situation being frozen in the distant past for the sole reason that her ex-husband had paid her alimony between 2005 and 2009," the ruling said.