The Villa Hier at 374 Avenue Mrs L-D Beaumont is a house in Cap d'Antibes. It was designed by the American architect Barry Dierks for the British arms manufacturer Anthony Edgar Somers.[1] It is listed on the Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel.[2]
The Villa Hier was sold to Swiru Holding AG, a company based in Switzerland for €35 million in 2008. French investigators subsequently found hidden payments that indicated the actual purchase price had been €127 million and that taxes had been avoided on the sale.[1] The ownership of the house has been linked to the Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov. He was charged in 2017 by French authorities in relation to "suspicions that he used figureheads to acquire several Riviera properties". The Villa Hier was seized by French tax authorities as a result of the case.[3] The case was overturned in 2019.[1][4] The ultimate beneficial owner of the Villa Hier is Suleiman Kermov's daughter.[4]
The house includes a large oval outdoor swimming pool and a tennis court.[1]
The house was the setting for the 1988 film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin.[3]
References edit
- ^ a b c d Gaspard Sebag and Simon Lee (27 March 2022). "These Are the Russian Tycoon Mansions on the French Riviera". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- ^ "Villa Hier". Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel. Archived from the original on 11 April 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- ^ a b Bremner, Charles; Bennetts, Marc (23 November 2017). "Russian anger as Nice police hold oligarch". The Times. p. 43. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- ^ a b James Oliver, Nassos Stylianou and Steve Swann (11 April 2022). "Hidden wealth of one of Putin's 'inner circle' revealed". BBC News. Retrieved 11 April 2022.