In August 2022, the Nice prosecutor's office received a report from Tracfin regarding Kerimov, which may have triggered renewed investigations into his financial dealings.

On March 27, 2025, authorities conducted searches at the Ministry of Economy and Finance in Paris and a tax lawyer's office as part of the ongoing judicial inquiry into Kerimov.

Despite being owned by Kerimova, the villas have been frozen by the French Treasury due to sanctions against Russia, leading to ongoing legal disputes.

The investigation centers on luxury villas located on the French Riviera, valued at over €38 million, which are allegedly registered under false names to hide their true ownership by billionaire Souleïman Kerimov.

Kerimov, who has been under European sanctions since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has a reported net worth exceeding $16 billion as of 2020.

This restructuring led to the transfer of the villas to companies owned by Kerimova, who has been paying over €4 million annually in property taxes since the transaction.

Recent evidence from Tracfin, the French financial intelligence service, has raised new suspicions about the origins of the funds used for these acquisitions.

The true owners of these properties are believed to be Russian nationals attempting to conceal their identities due to EU asset freezing measures.

Investigators are scrutinizing a deal made in 2019 between Kerimov and the French tax administration, which involved a restructuring that allowed his daughter, Gulnara Kerimova, to purchase the villas.

The scrutiny surrounding Kerimov intensified following the 2022 Ukraine invasion, prompting investigations into the financial flows related to the property restructuring.

This inquiry, which began in summer 2023 under Judge Serge Tournaire, aims to uncover details about Kerimov's dealings with the French tax system related to the luxury villas.