Milan prosecutors announced on Friday that Italian police had arrested a Russian man accused of helping an indicted son a Putin ally to escape house arrest last year in Italy.

Artem Uss fled from Italy to Russia in March 2023 after avoiding Italian authorities who tried to extradite him. He faces charges of shipping oil out of Venezuela against sanctions and bank fraud.

The Milan-based prosecutor described the suspect, a 54-year old Russian entrepreneur living in Switzerland.

Prosecutors claim that a group headed by the suspect had arranged for Uss's escape by crossing the border to Slovenia the day before. They also used cars registered in other countries and phone numbers from Serbian, Bosnian and Italian as well as Slovenian to try to confuse the investigation.

Two sources who have direct knowledge of the case identified the man arrested as Dmitry Chirakadze. He is a Geneva resident and was arrested at Rome's airport by Carabinieri officers as he returned from Sardinia.

He founded the Pravo.ru Group and is a partner with several Russian companies along with the Uss family. The statement from the prosecutor said that he and his wife own a luxury resort in Sardinia, as well as a large hunting property in Krasnoyarsk.

It was not possible to immediately contact the lawyer of the suspect for a comment.

Uss was under house arrest in his home Basiglio on the outskirts Milan. He fled after a Milan court decided to extradite him.

When he left his house, the electronic tracking tag sent an alarm but by the time the police arrived at the villa he was gone.

Uss announced that he had been in Russia a week later. Alexander Uss, his father, who is close to Vladimir Putin and resigned from the position of governor in Russia's Krasnoyarsk Region, has a strong relationship with him.

The Italian Treasury then frozen the assets that he had in the country.

The arrest is part of an ongoing investigation into Uss’ escape. The United States had requested extradition last December of another suspect from Bosnia and Herzegovina.