A close confidante of Vladimir Putin said to regularly meet with him at the Kremlin. Aven served as Russia’s minister of foreign economic relations in the 1990s before becoming president of Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank, in 1994. He is now one of Russia’s richest people, with a reported net worth of $4.7 billion.

He was sanctioned by the EU and U.K. in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, and subsequently resigned from Alfa Bank’s board of directors. He also reportedly stepped down as a board member of the Luxembourg-based international investment firm LetterOne.

His representative Igor Bass said in an email that Aven disagreed with the imposition of these sanctions. “He is now defending himself against the sanctions and baseless accusations,” Bass said, adding that all of Aven’s assets “were checked for compliance and confirmed by the responsible institutions.”