Authorities in Russia have confiscated real estate worth more than ₽13 billion ($160 million) from the former head of Adygea’s Supreme Court, Aslan Trakhov, and his close relatives. Despite the seizure of his assets, no formal charges have been pressed against the former judge.
The Russian media outlet Kommersant reported on Tuesday that Trakhov’s assets were seized by the Volzhsky City Court in Volgograd following a claim from Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to Kommersant, the defendants fully handed over their assets. At the time of the ruling, no criminal charges had been publicly brought against Trakhov, who headed the republic’s judicial system for more than 20 years, between 1998–2019.
In total, 214 real estate properties with an estimated value exceeding ₽13 billion ($160 million) were seized by the state, including land plots, commercial and residential buildings, as well as unfinished construction projects. The court’s ruling is subject to immediate enforcement.
According to Kommersant, 100% of the shares in TK Monorama Adygea and Laki — both limited liability companies — to which property worth ₽5.5 billion ($67 million) had been registered, were transferred to the state.
Other confiscated assets included 118 land plots covering 26 hectares worth ₽3.7 billion ($45 million), 71 commercial buildings and premises of about 13,000 square metres worth ₽3 billion ($36 million), 11 residential buildings and premises covering 2,100 square metres valued at ₽1.1 billion ($13 million), as well as 14 unfinished construction projects with an area of 3,800 square metres worth ₽74 million ($890,000).
Court materials and the prosecutor’s claim stated that part of the properties had been formally registered in the names of family members and a number of nominal owners.
During the trial, according to the court and representatives of the parties, Trakhov and his son, acting judge Rustem Trakhov, admitted that they had used their official position to acquire some of the properties and companies listed in the claim.
According to the claim, Aslan Trakhov’s wife, Svetlana Trakhova, who served as business manager at Adygea State University from 2002–2019, acquired 25 real estate properties with a cadastral value estimated at about ₽80 million ($960,000). Among these were a house with a land plot in Krasnodar and several properties in Sochi.
After retiring, according to case materials, Svetlana Trakhova sold 15 properties with a cadastral value of about ₽40 million ($480,000).
The claim also stated that the judge’s daughter, Susana Kobleva (née Trakhova), had acquired 68 real estate properties with a total cadastral value exceeding ₽520 million ($6 million). Case materials noted that 27 of these properties with a cadastral value of about ₽285 million ($3.5 million) had been sold, while part of the remaining assets was used for beauty salons founded Kobleva.
Several reports and court materials indicated that the prosecutor’s initial claim was heard in courts in the Krasnodar region and covered a smaller amount of assets. However, at the request of the prosecutor’s office, which suspected that the Trakhov family had ties within the judicial system of the Krasnodar region and Adygea, the case was transferred to the Volzhsky City Court of the Volgograd region, and the claim was supplemented and increased to the current amount cited in the ruling.
Kommersant, citing sources in law enforcement, reported that a criminal case had been opened against Kobleva on charges of large-scale fraud and large-scale money laundering. Her former husband, Kaplan Koblev, was also arrested some time ago.
At the same time, despite the transfer of significant amounts of property to the state under the civil claim by the prosecutor’s office and the defendants’ admission of the claim, there has been no public report of criminal charges being filed against Aslan Trakhov himself, even though retired judges do not have immunity.
Elizaveta Chukharova
