France seizes Roman Abramovich's $98 million luxury château amid crackdown on 12 of his properties, a report says

• Roman Abramovich's luxury villa on the French coast has been seized, Le Parisien reports.
• France said it had seized 33 properties owned by Russian oligarchs, per Le Parisien.

Roman Abramovich's $98 million château was seized by French police as part of a crackdown on the billionaire's assets, Le Parisien first reported.

France's economy and finance ministry said on Wednesday that it had seized a total of 33 properties, four yachts, and six helicopters owned by sanctioned oligarchs, per Le Parisien. The ministry referred Insider to the list of the frozen assets.

"There are 33 properties that have been frozen, including a dozen belonging to Roman Abramovich," a French finance ministry source said, cited in UK publications, including The Mirror and The Daily Mail.

One of the properties was Château de la Croë, which is owned by Abramovich and located in the city of Cap d'Antibes, a resort town between Cannes and Nice on the French Riviera, according to Le Parisien. The billionaire spent around 100 million euros ($109 million) on work to restore the luxury villa, Le Parisien reported.

Local estate agents told The Mirror that the villa is estimated to be worth around £90 million ($98 million), and boasts a 15-meter swimming pool on the roof, a gym, and a cinema in the basement.

Château de la Croë, built in the 1920s, was reportedly rented out by the UK's King Edward VIII before the second world war.

All of the assets that France has recently seized add up to more than 25 million euros ($27 million), the French finance ministry source said, cited in The Mirror and The Daily Mail. "It is all part of the programme of sanctions being brought against the Russian Federation in response to its invasion of Ukraine," the source added.

Some of the oligarchs' properties are located in picturesque French towns, including Saint-Tropez, Antibes, Cannes, Le Lavandou, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and Méribel, Le Parisien reported.

The news comes after the government of Jersey froze more than $7 billion in assets suspected of being connected to Abramovich.