The Hamburg-based law firm Rechtsanwälte Steinhöfel announces that Tagesschau, Germany's oldest and most influential news program, broadcast by the country's main public broadcaster ARD/NDR, has voluntarily retracted statements published on its website. These statements attributed the ownership of luxury assets to Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov and his sister, Gulbakhor Ismailova, claiming that Mr. Usmanov "owned luxury real estate in Germany" and that Ms. Ismailova, according to "investigations," "owned" the mega-yacht Dilbar, which was docked in Hamburg.
Since 2022, numerous European media outlets have removed false allegations regarding Mr. Usmanov and Ms. Ismailova's ownership of these assets. In reality, these properties are held in irrevocable discretionary trusts, where neither Mr. Usmanov nor his sister has any control or ownership interest, with all rights vested in independent trustees. In February 2025, dpa, Germany's largest news agency, issued a statement urging its media partners to "unpublish" the report claiming that Ms. Ismailova owned the Dilbar
The Council of the European Union used these allegations to sanction Ms. Ismailova, arguing that Mr. Usmanov had transferred ownership of these assets to her in order to evade sanctions. The legal representatives of Mr. Usmanov and Ms. Ismailova have denied this claim, while the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) deleted tweets that had reiterated the allegations used by the EU Council to justify its sanctions.
"This is not the first time that NDR has broadcast such false statements. The broadcaster has been forced multiple times to sign cease-and-desist declarations, which include contractual penalties in case of violations. Previous breaches of these declarations have already led to NDR paying contractual penalties," said Joachim Steinhöfel, a media law attorney representing Ms. Ismailova and Mr. Usmanov.
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Press contact: Charles de Beistegui +33 6 15 29 80 87
