Status: 08/21/2022 06:25 a.m
Russian oligarchs have their fortunes parked and anchored around the world. A new special unit in New York is now targeting exactly this – and providing the legal preparatory work for the confiscation.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco promises that things will get tight for Russian oligarchs when the US judiciary has their sights set on them. There’s no point in hiding: “We’ll get you, get your yacht, your jet, your account.”
Dirty assets, tricks to circumvent the sanctions – since the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine the US government has been cracking down on Moscow’s corrupt money elite, US Attorney General Merrick Garland agrees:
We leave no stone unturned in our efforts to investigate, arrest and prosecute those whose criminal activities enable Russia to wage this unjust war.
“Disturbing the comfort of the oligarchs”
The task force on the trail of the oligarchs lurks behind the mirrored panes of a darkened administration building in Manhattan’s financial district. “KleptoCapture” is the name of the unit, which translates as “catch the thief”.
What sounds like the name of a board game has become deadly serious for numerous oligarchs – and politicians: 28 names are on the US sanctions list, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The special unit that Garland formed in New York in March is intended to show that the US is enforcing its sanctions against supporters of this war at all costs. And that nobody can circumvent them through money laundering or networks, explains “KleptoCapture” director Andrew Adams in an interview with the broadcaster NBC: “We want to interrupt networks. Disrupt the comforts that the oligarchs enjoy: real estate, bank accounts, art, the undeserved harvested fruits of a life of luxury – we have all that on the plan.”
Andrew Adams leads the oligarch hunter group “KleptoCapture”.
Image: picture alliance / Consolidated
The first trophy: A yacht
Adams could play the nice prosecutor in a black-and-white thriller. But behind his boyish facade are years of accumulated experience. As a prosecutor, he has taken on Russian organized crime groups. In his new job in Manhattan, he leads an entire armada of oligarch hunters.
The team includes more than 10 prosecutors and other criminal justice professionals, as well as experts in national security, FBI and tax investigators. “You can’t just go and grab a yacht,” says Adams. “You have to go through the facts connecting the property to a crime. You have to prove the crime.”
The task force confiscated the first oligarch ship in April: the luxury yacht owned by Russian investor Viktor Wekselberg. The billionaire has been on the US sanctions list since 2018 for suspected tax fraud, money laundering and forgery of documents to circumvent sanctions. With the help of the Spanish police, “KleptoCapture” chained its $90 million yacht “Tango” off Mallorca.
The oligarch yacht “Tango” was searched in the port of Barcelona by US federal officials and the Spanish Civil Guard.
Image: dpa
A private plane in Kazakhstan
Meanwhile, “KleptoCapture” is another Russian billionaire: the Duma deputy Andrei Skotsch. The US and the EU have imposed numerous sanctions on the oligarch. Among other things, he is said to be connected to Russian organized crime gangs. “KleptoCapture” wants to cash in on his plane, which is worth the equivalent of more than 88 million euros. It’s in Kazakhstan right now.
It’s not an easy case – but that’s exactly what irritates oligarch hunter Adams: “The reason for coming to work is to hunt for money and then the crime behind it.”
The US and other countries have the right to freeze the assets of suspected oligarchs. The original owners will then not be able to use that yacht, jet, home or account until the sanctions are lifted or successfully challenged.
So far, the US and its allies, including Germany, have frozen Russian oligarchs’ assets worth more than $330 billion.