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France seizes assets of Russian tycoon

MOSCOW, April 28 (UPI) -- France has seized property belonging to Boris Berezovsky, a Russian tycoon now living in exile, a Russian official said.

The Prosecutor General's Office did not reveal which of Berezovsky's assets were seized. The Moscow Times, the Russian Legal Information Agency and the Russian television network RT all reported it was worth 13 million euros or $17 million, while the Russian news agency RIA Novosti said it was worth in the billions.

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In the past, the French government reportedly seized an estate and two yachts from Berezovsky. A court reversed the seizure of the yachts on the grounds that they did not belong to Berezovsky, the Times said.

Berezovsky, a former ally of Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister who will soon begin his third term as president, moved to London shortly after Putin was elected president for the first time. He is now charged with embezzling $2 billion from two state-owned companies, and Russia has been trying unsuccessfully to get him extradited from Britain, RIA Novosti reported.

A former government official, Berezovsky got rich during the 1990s, when state-owned companies were privatized.

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