The Telegraph has this curious story where Yves Bouvier has been arrested for suspicion of fraud in Monaco. The investigation seems to be around art transactions. The Guardian says, “The investigation is believed to centre on inflating prices in very big art transactions in which Bouvier was an intermediary.” Bouvier is the person behind the massive freeport in Geneva and its satellites in Singapore and Luxembourg:
Yves Bouvier was detained in the Mediterranean principality on Wednesday along with two other persons on suspicion of fraud, the Monaco attorney general, Jean-Pierre Dreno, told the Telegraph.
Mr Bouvier runs the Luxembourg Freeport, a vast repository for billions of pounds’ worth of fine art and other treasures. Mr Dreno would provide no details of the investigation, but a source with knowledge of the affair said that it was a long-running probe and that a number of “high net-worth individuals” in Britain, the United States and Asia may have been victims of the alleged fraud.
The source said that the Rybolovlev family may have been defrauded of tens of millions of euros in the alleged scheme.
Tetiana Bersheda, a lawyer for the family, issued a statement saying that an “investigation has been launched by the judicial authorities of Monaco against Mr Yves Bouvier, one of the most famous people in the world of art who is the owner of the free ports of Singapore, Geneva and Luxembourg among others.”“After having worked for more than ten years with Mr Bouvier, the Rybolovlev family received some information about possible fraud and manipulation of prices on the art market by Mr Bouvier and his accomplices. The scope and all the victims of the fraudulent scheme created by Mr Bouvier have not yet been identified at this juncture,” the statement said.
Monaco FC owner Rybolovlev among alleged victims of huge art scam (Telegraph)
Leading Swiss art broker arrested over alleged price-fixing scam (The Guardian)