Vekselberg’s housing problem framed his friend

U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged Vladimir Voronchenko, a Russian businessman with permanent residence in the United States, of conspiring to circumvent sanctions against the billionaire. Viktor Vekselbergmoney laundering and contempt of court, reported by the US Department of Justice.

The Russian faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the first two charges, the maximum penalty given that Voronchenko fled justice in May last year by leaving the United States for Moscow via Dubai.

The indictment documents state that Voronchenko “established himself as a successful businessman, collector and art dealer, as well as a close friend and business partner of Viktor Vekselberg”, and that he had a permanent residence permit in the United States and lived at various times in New York. York, Southampton (New York), and Fisher Island (Florida).
In the period from 2008 to 2017, Viktor Vekselberg, through a series of shell companies, acquired a number of expensive real estate in the United States: an apartment on Park Avenue in New York; an estate in Southampton, New York; and two apartments in Miami, Florida.

According to US prosecutors, Voronchenko paid $4 million to maintain Vekselberg’s apartments and home in New York and Florida after the billionaire was sanctioned in 2018. He also tried to sell two of the four properties owned by Vekselberg. The Ministry of Justice claims that in 2007-2018, Vekselberg acquired four properties in the United States: an apartment in the city of New York, a country house in the state of the same name, and two apartments in Florida. The estimated cost of all objects is $75 million, the report says.

Prosecutors believe that before being included in the sanctions lists in 2018, payments related to the maintenance of apartments and a country house were made by “front companies owned by Vekselberg” (about 90 bank transfers totaling about $18.5 million). Later, they began to come from accounts associated with Voronchenko’s companies (25 bank transfers from June 2018 to March 2022, totaling about $4 million). In mid-May 2022, FBI agents served Voronchenko with a subpoena, at the end of May he took a flight from Miami (Florida) to Dubai (UAE), and then went to Moscow. Voronchenko did not stand trial and did not return to the United States, according to a Justice Department statement.

The prosecutor’s office is ready to “confiscate from Voronchenko the proceeds of his crimes, including property.” A charge of contempt of court carries the maximum penalty at the discretion of the court. On charges of conspiracy to circumvent sanctions and money laundering, it is 20 years in prison. The case is being coordinated by the US Department of Justice task force KleptoCapture, which is tasked with enforcing sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s NWO in Ukraine.

1 September, the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security raided an apartment and house that may be associated with Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. We are talking about real estate in New York and Florida. It is reported by NBC News.
According to AP, the properties that were searched belong to Vekselberg’s childhood friend Vladimir Voronchenko or companies associated with Voronchenko’s family and partners. Voronchenko was the founding director of the St. Petersburg museum, built to house the oligarch’s collection of Faberge eggs. According to media reports, during a search of an apartment in Manhattan, FBI agents “carried out boxes.”

In January, the US Department of Justice charged Russian and British businessmen with helping Vekselberg circumvent sanctions. Vladislav Osipov And Richard Masters. Prosecutors believe that they were trying to withdraw from the sanctions the Tango yacht, the ownership of which is attributed to Vekselberg. Masters, 52, was detained in Spain with a view to extradition to the United States, and an arrest warrant was issued against Osipov, 51, the US Department of Justice said.

In March 2022, the US Treasury decided to block the Tango yacht and plane, which, according to the agency, are associated with Vekselberg. In April, the Spanish Civil Guard, at the request of the FBI, arrested the Tango yacht, which was at the shipyard in Mallorca. US Department of Justice then declaredthat Vekselberg purchased Tango in 2011 and used front companies to hide his involvement in the yacht.

Billionaire declared last spring that the re-inclusion on the sanctions list “is not only unfounded, but also seems to be based on demonstrably unfounded assumptions.” Vekselberg and Renova controlled by him fell under US sanctions in 2018, after which Vekselberg’s accounts in Switzerland for $1.02 billion blocked. Vekselberg, who took 22nd place in 2022 rating of the richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes with a fortune estimated at $ 5.5 billion, appealed This is a decision in an American court.

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