This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
The United States says it has blocked a U.S.-based trust worth more than $1 billion linked to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
The Treasury Department said in a news release on June 30 that Kerimov secretly managed Heritage Trust by bringing money into the United States through shell companies and foundations in Europe.
The action comes weeks after Fiji handed over a superyacht linked to Kerimov to the United States.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen vowed that Washington would continue using “the full range of our tools to expose and disrupt those who seek to evade our sanctions and hide their ill-gotten gains.”
The United States will “actively implement the multilaterally coordinated sanctions imposed on those who fund and benefit from Russia’s war against Ukraine,” she said in a statement.
The U.S. and European governments announced a crackdown on Russian oligarchs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as part of a raft of Western sanctions.
The Treasury Department joined the Justice Department and other agencies earlier this year to form a task force known as REPO — short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs — to work with other countries to investigate and prosecute oligarchs and individuals allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
That consortium blocked and froze $30 billion in sanctioned individuals’ property and funds in its first 100 days in operation, the Treasury Department reported on June 29.
Kerimov has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 over alleged money laundering and his role in the Russian government. His empire is built mainly on Russia’s vast natural resources.
Kerimov appeared in February with several other billionaires alongside Putin as Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine.
