La Rochepot (Côte-d’Or). A Ukrainian crook pretending to be dead… A castle at the heart of a vast money laundering system… The incredible affair, straight out of a detective series, finally finds its conclusion. After eight years of legal twists and turns, the Metz Court of Appeal confirmed the confiscation of the Château de La Rochepot from its former owner, businessman Dmitri Malinovsky. The latter, subject to an arrest warrant, faces five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros. As for the castle and its hotel-restaurant, they have been recovered by the State and can therefore be put up for sale by the Agency for the Management and Recovery of Seized and Confiscated Assets (AGRASC). A decision which now allows us to consider a restoration of the buildings which have been slowly deteriorating since the start of the case.
A quick reminder of the facts: in 2015, the Château de La Rochepot finally found a buyer. The 12th century castle, former property of the President of the Third Republic Sadi Carnot, is sold for 2.5 million euros by his heiress, Sylvie Carnot, to Lithuanian investors based in Luxembourg. The new owners undertake to renovate the site to start a wine trading activity.
An organized money laundering network
But in 2017, daily life The public good reveals that the artisans hired were never paid. An investigation, ordered by the Dijon prosecutor, revealed that the investor was Dmitri Malinovsky, a Ukrainian accused of having embezzled nearly 13 million euros in a business of trading agricultural fertilizers. In order to escape justice in his country, the crook pretended to be dead in 2014, before resurrecting under another identity in Burgundy. Part of the fraudulent money was allegedly transferred and then laundered via shell companies, including the one that bought the castle. His name did not appear anywhere, but the companies managing the site were registered in the name of his accomplices: one to his wife, Alla Malinovska, another to his mistress, Olga Kalina, and the last two to his driver, Alexandru Arman.
In October 2018, the main defendant and his accomplices were arrested, while the castle closed to the public. In 2022, a first trial took place: the Nancy court convicted Dmitri Malinovsky of money laundering, use of forgery, possession of weapons and concealed work, pronouncing a prison sentence of four and a half years against him. The defendants then contest the court decision and a new appeal trial is held in October 2024, at the end of which their guilt is confirmed. But in 2025, a new twist. The Court of Cassation invalidated part of the decision handed down previously, considering that certain confiscations – including those of the castle – were not sufficiently justified. Putting an end to this legal imbroglio, the Metz Court of Appeal finally authorized the confiscation of the castle on March 12. A decision that the defendants this time did not challenge in cassation. So the affair is concluded, finally.
