British businessman Graham Bonham Carter has been arrested on US charges of conspiring to violate sanctions imposed on Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. reports Reuters with reference to US Department of Justice message. Prosecutors said they would seek the extradition of the British businessman.
“Bonham Carter concealed the origin of funding to maintain and manage Deripaska’s wealthy US assets in violation of international sanctions,” Manhattan chief federal prosecutor Damian Williams said in a statement. According to prosecutors, Bonham Carter made payments for American real estate owned by Deripaska and tried to take works of art bought by a Russian billionaire in the United States abroad. Bonham Carter’s lawyer and the British National Crime Agency did not respond to a request for comment from the agency.
Prosecutors believe Bonham Carter has been working for Deripaska-controlled entities since around 2003 and managed his residential property in the UK and Europe. In 2021, Bonham Carter transferred just over $1 million from a Russian bank account of a company he controlled on behalf of Deripaska to a New York bank account for Gracetown, the company that manages residential real estate Deripaska in the United States.
According to prosecutors, the payments were intended to pay for the maintenance of two residential properties Deripaska in New York and one in Washington, D.C., which the billionaire purchased between 2005 and 2008. According to the US Department of Justice, Bonham Carter also tried to transfer works of art bought by Deripaska from an auction house in New York to London in 2021. He told the auction house false information that they did not belong to Deripaska, according to the prosecutor’s office. Bonham Carter is charged with three counts of conspiracy to violate and circumvent U.S. sanctions, sanctions violations, and wire fraud. Each of them provides for a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
“Voice of America Russian Service”, 10/12/2022, “British businessman arrested for helping Oleg Deripaska circumvent US sanctions”: Prosecutors accuse Bonham Carter of carrying out illegal financial transactions worth more than $1 million to finance real estate in the United States in the interests of Deripaska. Between 2005 and 2008, Deripaska purchased three mansions in the United States, two in New York and one in Washington, DC. The property was managed by Gracetown Inc. After Deripaska fell under the US in April 2018, he suggested that Bonham Carter create a new company. On May 25, 2018, the Brit wrote in an email that Deripaska wanted me to “create my own company to manage a house in Belgravia, and possibly real estate in Japan, Italy, China and other countries.” Less than two months later, on July 17, 2018, Graham Bonham Carter registered the GBCM Limited campaign in his name.
From March to December 2021, Bonham Carter’s company paid for various expenses related to Deripaska’s US real estate, including employee salaries, property taxes and other services. She also helped transfer money from bank accounts in Russia to the account of Gracetown, Inc. in New York. In 2021, Bonham-Carter also tried to transfer works of art bought by Deripaska at auction houses in New York and London, and deliberately withheld from the auction house the information that it was Deripaska’s property. — Inset K.ru
The U.S. Justice Department is pressuring Russian billionaires through sanctions, asset seizures and criminal prosecutions to stop supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin in a “special military operation”*, the agency said. The investigation was coordinated by the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture group, which is tasked with enforcing tough sanctions, export controls and economic countermeasures that the United States imposed in response to the “special operation,” the Justice Department said.
Oleg Deripaska subject to US sanctions in 2018, among two dozen Russian businessmen and government officials linked by U.S. authorities to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. At the end of September 2022, the Ministry of Justice accused Deripaska of violating sanctions. According to the US Department of Justice, Deripaska and two women he hired, Natalia Bardakova and US citizen Olga Shriki, conspired to evade sanctions against the billionaire imposed in 2018. According to the prosecutor’s office, the businessman, through subordinates, organized property transactions in the United States, as well as a visit and childbirth in the United States for Ekaterina Voroninawhich the Ministry of Justice of the country called the businessman’s girlfriend and the mother of his child.
Oleg Deripaska was ranked 50th in the Forbes 2022 ranking of 88 Russian billionaires. His fortune was estimated at $ 1.7 billion when compiling the rating. […]
*According to the requirement of Roskomnadzor, when preparing materials on a special operation in eastern Ukraine, all Russian media are required to use information only from official sources of the Russian Federation. We cannot publish materials in which the ongoing operation is called an “attack”, “invasion” or “declaration of war”, unless it is a direct quote (Article 57 of the Federal Law on the Media). In case of violation of the requirement, the media may be fined 5 million rubles, and the publication may also be blocked.