Police Raid Leaves Russian Billionaire’s Domestic Staff in Sanctions Limbo

On an early December morning, a squad of more than 50 law enforcement agents in black masks swooped on Athlone House, the £100 million ($127 million) north London home of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman.

As officers sifted through the contents of the 35,000 square-foot mansion, Nerijus Kuskys, a Lithuanian immigrant who managed the estate, arrived to find police cars blocking the driveway. He headed for the gatehouse. There, he hurriedly took cash from a safe, stuffed it into a plastic bag, and handed it through a window to a Polish security guard — for safekeeping, he said. Most of the money was his life savings, which he had been forced to keep in cash after Barclays Plc closed his account five months earlier without explanation, he added.