Dmitry Rybolovlev completely exonerated: legal proceedings against AS Monaco president annulled
The Rybolovlev affair is no more / Photo all rights reserved
The Rybolovlev case is now closed. On 27 February 2025, the Monegasque courts ordered that the criminal proceedings against Dmitry Rybolovlev be dismissed in their entirety, ending a legal saga that has kept the Principality on the edge of its seat for almost a decade.
At the request of the investigating judges, with the agreement of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Court of Appeal has followed the findings of the judgement against Monaco by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) of June 6, 2024. The unanimous ECHR ruling found that the extraction and use of Dmitry Rybolovlev’s lawyer Tetiana Bersheda’s telephone, were in violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to private life.
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A legal saga with many twists and turns
The case began in 2015, when Dmitry Rybolovlev filed a criminal complaint against his Swiss art adviser Yves Bouvier. The AS Monaco President accused Bouvier of swindling him out of one billion dollars over sales of masterpieces. This initial dispute sparked a legal battle that quickly spread to several international jurisdictions.
The case took an unexpected turn in 2016 when invasion of privacy proceedings were opened in Monaco. At the centre of the new procedure was Tania Rappo, a Monegasque resident and mutual friend of the two protagonists. She lodged the complaint after discovering that Tetiana Bersheda, Rybolovlev’s lawyer, had secretly recorded a conversation at a dinner party, to demonstrate Rappo’s alleged complicity with Bouvier.
The controversial report that started it all
In 2017, Ms Bersheda voluntarily handed over the phone that contained the recording to the police for examination. The investigating judge, Édouard Levrault, ordered a forensic data examination which, according to the ECHR, went far beyond the initial scope: “a vast telecommunications report from a court-appointed expert, with no real limits as to dates or scope of inquiry.” The European Court ruled that the “intrusiveness” of the approach “could be compared to searches and seizures.” The findings were then used in 2018 to accuse Dmitry Rybolovlev and other influential figures in Monaco of corruption and influence peddling.
An epilogue with a domino effect
The decision by the Monaco Court of Appeal is the latest in a series of developments in Rybolovlev’s favour. In November 2023, the case against Dmitry Rybolovlev for invasion of privacy was dismissed, Ms Bersheda’s acquittal followed in March 2024, and the ECHR rejected Édouard Levrault’s application concerning his non-renewal as a magistrate seconded to Monaco in July 2024. In October 2024, the Swiss Public Prosecutor closed criminal proceedings against Tetiana Bersheda and Dmitry Rybolovlev, considering the examination of the telephone to be unlawful.
The main protagonists, Dmitry Rybolovlev and Yves Bouvier, came to a confidential agreement in 2023, ending their initial dispute.
The lawyers’ reaction
Martin Reynaud, Thomas Giaccardi and Jacqueline Laffont, Dmitry Rybolovlev’s legal counsel, and Sébastien Schapira and Léa Hufnagel, Tetiana Bersheda’s lawyers, welcomed the decision in a statement: “The only conceivable decision was to annul all of these irreparably flawed proceedings, in which Dmitry Rybolovlev and his lawyer were unjustly indicted in 2018.” The lawyers also stressed: “As we have stated consistently over these seven years of judicial inquiry, Dmitry Rybolovlev and Tetiana Bersheda maintained their innocence and awaited the end of this case with confidence.”
Monaco Tribune contacted Mr Reynaud, who represents Dmitry Rybolovlev. He added: “We have been maintaining since 2017 that the examination of Dmitry Rybolovlev’s lawyer’s phone was illegal; fortunately, the courts have finally recognised this and put an end to the proceedings.”
Turning the page
The decision signals the end of a legal saga that has lasted almost a decade. As Dmitry Rybolovlev’s lawyers point out, no further criminal proceedings are pending against Dmitry Rybolovlev and Tetiana Bersheda: “They are totally and definitively cleared.” One of the most significant chapters in the Principality’s recent judicial history is finally closed.