French police arrested an unnamed “high-profile” Ukrainian who used forged death certificates to evade the authorities, Europol said in a statement Tuesday.
The fugitive, identified only as the “King of the Castle” by the European Union’s law-enforcement agency, was detained on Oct. 5 near Dijon, according to the statement. Officers recovered 4.6 million euros ($5.3 million) of property, including a castle, a vintage Rolls Royce Phantom and three works of art by Salvador Dali.
“The suspect is thought to be behind a complex case of international fraud and money laundering,” Europol said. French police began investigations in January over alleged suspicious transactions relating to the purchase of the castle for 3 million euros by a company in Luxembourg “whose ultimate beneficial owner was a Ukrainian citizen suspected of corruption at a large scale in his country,” according to the statement.
The man was detained with three accomplices, according to the Hague-based agency, which said it had coordinated with French, Ukrainian and Luxembourg authorities to establish that the suspect who’d used false death certificates “was not only alive, but was enjoying a lavish lifestyle in France.”
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