United States – Justice Department announced five separate federal cases on Thursday and made several arrests and indictments against Russian businessmen and their facilitators around the city of New York and Florida, Georgia, and the District of Columbia.
The timing of the action was meant to link it with the second anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine (which started on the 24th of February 2022).
Russian Banker and Facilitators
In New York, curse To Bear was unsealed against Andrei Kostin, a Russian-sanctioned banker, and two of his U.S.-based facilitators. Facilitators Vadim Wolfson and Gannan Bond were arrested on Thursday, as reported by The Associated Press.
Kostin has been the president of the state-owned VTB Bank, the country’s second largest, for many years. He is accused of providing a scheme to escape the sanctions and laundering the money for two superyachts. Likewise, the accused include Kostin and two facilitators for breaking sanctions that involved a luxury home in Aspen, Colorado.
Michael Khoo, a co-director of the department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, remarked on a call with the media that this announcement is a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “we’re not going away” and “we can play the long game, too” if the war still goes on.
The KleptoCapture task force performs the financial sanctions in the area of the US that target Russia and its billionaires.
Substantial Asset Seizures
The Justice Department points out that during the past two years, their office secured more than $700 million in assets for restraint and seizure and charged more than 70 individuals with violating sanctions and export controls.
“The Justice Department is more committed than ever to cutting off the flow of illegal funds that are fueling Putin’s war and to holding accountable those who continue to enable it,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement, as reported by The Associated Press.
“That is why today we are announcing several additional enforcement actions that the Justice Department has taken to bring prosecutions against and seize assets of sanctioned enablers of the Kremlin and Russian military.”
Russian National and Seized Superyacht
Additionally, Thursday in DC, an indictment was unsealed that charged Vladislav Osipov with bank fraud & the operation of a 255-foot villa that is owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who was sanctioned. Osipov, a Russian national, resides in Switzerland, as reported by The Associated Press.
The indictment singles out Tango as the superyacht, which is the first one owned by a person the US sanctioned under close ties with the Kremlin seized at the authority of the US government after Russia invaded Ukraine.