High-flying New York socialite Janna Bullock jets to St. Tropez in the summer and Courchevel in the winter, but she doesn’t ever want to return to her Russian homeland — especially now that prosecutors in Moscow have issued a warrant for her arrest.
Bullock was ubiquitous on the New York social scene until her ex-husband’s legal problems worsened three years ago and she quit the board of the Guggenheim Museum. On Jan. 16, she was in a courtroom in Aix-en-Provence, France when her ex, Alexei Kuznetsov — a former banker and onetime finance minister for the Moscow region — was ordered to be extradited from France.
The Kremlin’s prosecutors intend to charge Kuznetsov, who has lived in France for five years, with 150 counts of fraud and seek damages that could total 11 billion rubles ($333 million). That could mean life in prison. Kuznetsov was arrested on July 5, 2013.
Russian prosecutors also asked the French judge to issue a warrant for Bullock, and she could face serious charges, as well. She and Kuznetsov are accused in a separate civil suit of using a network of offshore companies to defraud banks in Cyprus.
Sources familiar with the French legal system say it will likely take many months before Kuznetsov is extradited, and that Bullock, an American citizen, might never be served with a warrant.
“Russia has never asked the US to serve a warrant. It is doubtful Janna Bullock will be the first,” said one Russian émigré.
Bullock hasn’t been back to Russia in several years, and will never go there now. She once made a motorcycle trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow with Dennis Hopper and Jeremy Irons.
A friend of Kuznetsov’s said that the former Russian official was a victim of Russia’s corruption.
“Kuznetsov was smart and he made a lot of money. But there was a political coup in 2008, and he had to leave his job,” the pal said. “His deputy went to the courthouse to protest to the judge, and he was shot dead. Kuznetsov wisely left town — and the country.”
Kuznetsov and Bullock have previously denied the charges, and a lawyer for Bullock had no comment.