The Justice Department on Friday announced charges against Russian and British businessmen accused of helping a Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, hide his ownership of a luxury yacht in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Vladislav Osipov, a dual Russian and Swiss national, and Richard Masters, a U.K. citizen, face charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and commit crimes against the country, violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and money laundering, CNN has reported.
The seizure, carried out by the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture task force, is one of the most recent steps taken by the U.S. government to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his closest allies in connection with their invasion of Ukraine.
«Companies and executives have a choice: they can participate in the global effort to root out corruption, sanctions violations and money laundering and enjoy the benefits of swift and full cooperation; or they can, as Osipov and Masters have allegedly done, attempt to protect themselves and their clients behind a veil of fraud,» said task force director Andrew Adams.
«These men made their choices and now face the consequences of a failed attempt to profit through a sophisticated transnational criminal enterprise, rather than confronting it,» he added.
Masters, who ran a yacht management company in Spain, allegedly used a false name for his yacht in the United States to go undetected by U.S. institutions, allowing what prosecutors say were «hundreds of thousands of dollars in transactions» for the yacht that otherwise would not have been allowed, according to the newspaper.
Vekselberg’s yacht was seized by Spanish security forces in April, at the request of US authorities, for alleged money laundering, sanctions violations and bank fraud.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
