Russia's Supreme Court has prohibited the transfer of funds to Digimarket, a U.S.$35 million offshore company linked to Ruben Vardanyan, as legal proceedings continue over efforts to recover more than U.S.$64 million from a loan company.
The ruling concerns Digimarket, which financed the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel project in Moscow. The company was transferred to Russia's special offshore zone in Kaliningrad in spring 2026.
On 24 July, ownership of Digimarket was transferred to Vardanyan's wife, Veronika Zonabend.
The court's decision has renewed attention on Vardanyan's long-standing links to offshore financial networks dating back to Troika Dialog, the investment bank he founded.
International investigations into the bank alleged that a network of offshore companies used proxy owners to conceal the identities of their beneficiaries while moving billions of dollars out of Russia. The network was also alleged to have been used to launder criminal proceeds and disguise their origin.
According to those investigations, Vardanyan and members of his family received money through the network.
Reports said more than U.S.$3.2 million was used to pay bills on Vardanyan's American Express card, while additional funds were transferred to accounts belonging to his wife and family and used to pay school fees for his three children in the United Kingdom.
Vardanyan denied direct involvement, saying the offshore companies established by Troika Dialog served both his own businesses and the bank's clients.
Questions over Vardanyan's business activities later extended to the Swiss-based mining and metallurgy company Solway Investment Group.
In 2022, Vardanyan renounced his Russian citizenship and relocated to Garabagh, where he became state minister of the self-proclaimed and internationally unrecognised "Nagorno-Garabagh Republic".
According to Azerbaijan's State Security Service, Vardanyan helped finance and support the activities of illegal armed groups operating in the region.
He was later tried in Baku, where the Military Court sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
The court convicted him under multiple articles of Azerbaijan's Criminal Code, including crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, terrorism, and the financing of terrorism.
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