(Bloomberg) -- Russian billionaire Alexey Kuzmichev was detained for questioning in France on Monday in connection with alleged tax evasion and money laundering, as well as international sanctions violations, according to the French financial prosecutors’ office.

Searches were carried out in several locations — including at his Paris home and in the Var region on the Cote d’Azur — as part of a preliminary investigation, it said, confirming a report in Le Monde newspaper.

The French daily said Kuzmichev’s villa in Saint-Tropez was searched, and that piles of cash were discovered there.

Kuzmichev hasn’t been charged in the case.

A Paris-based lawyer for Kuzmichev didn’t immediately respond to a text-message request for comment outside business hours.

Kuzmichev is one of four Russian tycoons who helped found the Alfa Group conglomerate on whom the US imposed sanctions this summer. The four had been sanctioned for more than a year in Europe and have been challenging their designations in a series of legal actions.

--With assistance from Gaspard Sebag.

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