Tetiana Bersheda cleared of ‘invasion of privacy’ in Bouvier-Rybolovlev affair
© Monaco Tribune
The legal case, which dates to 2015, is finally over.
Regarding charges brought in 2015, Dmitry Rybolovlev’s lawyer Tetiana Bersheda has now been cleared of any wrongdoing, reveals Monaco-Matin. The decision comes four months after her client Dmitry Rybolovlev and former Monaco public prosecutor Jean-Pierre Dreno were exonerated. According to the Monaco daily, the public prosecutor’s office dismissed the case, and the victim, Tania Rappo, withdrew her complaint. The trial was held in camera at the Principality’s law courts on Tuesday 12 March.
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We need to press rewind to understand this chapter in a dispute that began nine years ago between AS Monaco president Dmitry Rybolovlev and Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier. Rybolovlev accused the art dealer of swindling him over the sale of masterpieces. The Russian billionaire filed a complaint against Yves Bouvier as well as against Tania Rappo, a friend of the two men who allegedly acted as a go-between, and who he accused of taking advantage of the situation for personal gain.
During the investigation, Dmitry Rybolovlev’s lawyer, Tetiana Bersheda, provided the Police Department with a recording proving the alleged complicity between Tania Rappo and Yves Bouvier. But the audio file in question, again according to Monaco-Matin, was recorded during a private dinner at Dmitry Rybolovlev’s home. Tania Rappo then filed a complaint not only against Tetiana Bersheda, but also against both Dmitry Rybolovlev and Monaco’s former public prosecutor, Jean-Pierre Dreno, for invasion of privacy.
“Through this decision, the Monaco court has purely and simply acquitted Tetiana Bersheda of the charges of invasion of privacy, which she has always contested since day one,” Sébastien Schapira, counsel for Tetiana Bersheda, commented to Monaco-Matin.
Lawyers Thomas Giaccardi and Martin Reynaud also commented to the Monegasque daily on the dismissal of the case against their client, Dmitry Rybolovlev, in November: “There were no grounds for prosecution. The examining magistrates recognised this, and made the only logical decision. There will be no trial against Dmitry Rybolovlev, who is completely exonerated.”