(Bloomberg) — A painting by Diego Rivera. A pair of Prada shoes. A baseball cap.
The FBI did not say why it seized those items and more in raids last October, but now the reasons are becoming clear: federal authorities suspect that Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska has been evading US sanctions.
Deripaska has been sanctioned since 2018 for his ties to Vladimir Putin, and the seizures in a Washington mansion and a house in New York linked to him predate the invasion of Ukraine. But the investigation of Deripaska's assets is now part of an escalation of US measures against ultra-rich Russians suspected of laundering money and hiding assets to help fund Putin's regime.
The raids were key steps in uncovering information that could determine if, and how, Deripaska moved money. Among the items that were removed from New York and Washington properties were half a dozen works of art, sunglasses, hiking boots, household items, financial records, telephone bills and other documents, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the investigation has not been made public.
Deripaska's investigation is now part of a special US Department of Justice task force called “KleptoCapture,” according to New York's federal prosecutor Andrew Adams, who leads the group.
“As Russia and its aggression continue, we have our eyes on every piece of art and real estate purchased with dirty money,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at a recent press conference.
In 2020, when Deripaska was in a legal battle to get sanctions lifted, he said in a court filing that the US government had been unable to prove the allegations that led the Treasury Department to put its name on a list of wealthy Russians facing sanctions. His lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge last year.
A spokeswoman for Deripaska rejected the US accusations and the suggestion of links with Putin or the raided properties. “Not a single investigation into Mr. Deripaska has provided any evidence to support the lies and baseless accusations against him,” he said in a statement. “To think that seizing baseball caps and shoes in houses that don't even belong to Mr. Deripaska will somehow make those lies more credible is absurd.”
The findings of the Treasury Department's 2018 sanctions against Deripaska highlighted his links with Putin. He has traveled with a Russian diplomatic passport and acted as an emissary of the State under Putin's leadership. The men are so close that Treasury officials allege that Deripaska laundered money through his company for Putin and kept assets on his behalf.
The billionaire has said in court documents that the allegations that he laundered funds and owned assets for Putin were false. In a 2019 Instagram post, he said that the sanctions “have been arbitrarily imposed on me for political reasons.”
Legal battle
Deripaska, who made his fortune running one of the largest aluminum companies in the world, lost the legal battle to lift the sanctions. In his 2019 lawsuit, he called the restrictions unfair and said they had eliminated billions of dollars from his wealth. Last month, an appeals court upheld the judge's dismissal of the lawsuit.
Deripaska has spoken out against the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling for peace and describing the conflict as “madness” in posts on the Telegram messaging app.
At the time of the October raids, Deripaska issued a statement acknowledging its links to properties in New York and Washington, but said they belonged to family members and denounced the Government's investigation.
Deripaska and the companies it controls, including aluminum producer United Co. Rusal and EN+ Group, became targets of the US authorities following the Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections. They were among the dozens of Russian citizens and companies sanctioned in 2018 by the Treasury Department, which claimed that they had contributed to “malignant activities worldwide”, including the invasion of Crimea, in southeastern Ukraine, in 2014.
Original Note:
Diego Rivera, Prada Seized in FBI's Pre-War Raid of Deripaska
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