US authorities suspect Russian oligarch Deripaska of money laundering for Putin

The US Treasury Department suspects Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska of helping President Vladimir Putin launder money. This is stated in a letter sent to Deripaska’s lawyers, whom the Financial Times reviewed, writes with the BBC.

Photo: screenshot YouTube / Rain

Oleg Deripaska has publicly stated more than once that he does not know the “true reasons” for including him on the US sanctions list. He even offered journalists are rewarded for helping to investigate these causes.

As the publication learned, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) claims that in 2016, Deripaska was allegedly “identified as one of those holding assets and laundering funds in the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

In particular, Deripaska in September 2017 canceled the placement of GAZ Group securities on the stock exchange, OFAC said. The agency sees this as an attempt to conceal money laundering. GAZ has not yet been removed from the sanctions; the US Treasury Department is constantly postponing the negotiations on their cancellation.

OFAC suggests that Deripaska’s business activity could be used as a screen for some operations with personal assets of Vladimir Putin, who was then prime minister, in the first half of 2011.

“They don't give facts. Just guesswork, rumors and gossip,” Deripaska told the publication. - These are baseless accusations. This is complete nonsense, instead of a presumption of innocence until the facts are established, which must be proven in court.”

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“Another portion of nonsense,” - such comment Deripaska published an article on the Financial Times in his telegram channel. Earlier, he confirmed in an interview with the media that this was his personal channel.

“The Financial Times article is simply a rehash of the false arguments of American bureaucrats. Anyone who takes the trouble to read the OFAC letter will see that it consists of unfounded accusations and complete nonsense. These are just rumors and gossip presented without a single piece of evidence - any court in the world would reject them,” Deripaska’s representative relayed his answer.

“The case against me is a violation of human rights and an attempt to use the US legal system for political purposes. One could laugh at their accusations if this attack did not put hundreds of thousands of jobs in Russia and around the world at stake,” the businessman said in a statement.

All OFAC citations use the word “reportedly” or “reportedly” but do not identify the source of the information.

"It is not true. That’s all,” Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in a comment to the newspaper.

Sanctions against Deripaska

In January 2018, Deripaska was included in the so-called US Kremlin report - a list of officials and businessmen that the Treasury Department submitted to the US Congress. The department included in it people who, according to officials, are close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On April 6 of the same year, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against Deripaska and his companies. The name of the billionaire was featured in an investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US presidential election. It turned out that the now convicted ex-adviser to Trump Paul Manafort worked for Deripaska.

This led to a collapse in the shares of Rusal, EN+ and other Deripaska companies. As a result, the billionaire was forced to reduce his stake in EN+ and actually give up control over Rusal. This helped bring several companies out of sanctions. Deripaska estimated his personal losses due to sanctions at $7,5 billion.

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Deripaska sued the Department of Finance and is now continuing to sue it for the lifting of personal sanctions against him. Deripaska asks to lift sanctions against him and remove his name from the “Kremlin report.” He also wants US authorities to provide evidence of the charges for which he was included in the sanctions lists.

In May 2019, the department disclosed the list of documents on which the decision to include Deripaska on the sanctions list was based. The list includes 29 sources, several of which were hidden. The businessman's representatives called the Treasury Department document "a poorly researched report, replete with false statements and factual inaccuracies."

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• Oleg Deripaska in US court first revealed what property he had frozen in America because of sanctions.
• After the imposition of sanctions to Oleg Deripaska had to return three private jets he rentedbecause he could no longer use them.
• 15 March 2019 year of Deripaska sued in Washington lawsuit against the US Department of the Treasury. The businessman demanded that the sanctions imposed against him in 2018 be lifted. According to court materials, Deripaska estimated financial losses from sanctions at $ 7,5 billion.
• “I have spent 30 years of my life creating companies that are major players in the global economy, and I won’t allow this hard work - along with millions of jobs and livelihoods - to be destroyed by political intrigue,” the businessman said. Later himself Deripaska explainedwhy sued the USA.
• 11 June 2019 year, about three dozen employees of the GAZ automobile plant owned by Deripaska, went on a picket against sanctions in the center of Moscow near the US Embassy. On the posters were the slogans “Do not push on GAZ!”, “Sanctions against GAZ - sanctions against me and my children.” There were also several posters with inscriptions in English: “Sanctions kill cooperation”, “Save GAZ, save me”, “Sanctions harm us, not Putin. Who are you fighting against? ”
• The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Deripaska and his eight companies in April 2018: they were included on the Specially Designated Nationals list. Those involved in this list are prohibited from entering the United States, their assets in the United States are blocked, and persons from the United States are forbidden to have any business relationship with them. In January USA lifted sanctions from three Deripaska companies (the billionaire himself remained under sanctions). Democrats in Congress demanded that all sanctions be maintained. In particular, they stated that the "oligarch" "promotes the malicious actions" of the Russian regime against the United States.
• After lifting the sanctions Deripaska company began to invest billions of dollars in the United States. UC Rusal plans to invest $ 200 million in the construction of a plant in Kentucky.
• US Treasury Department revealed a list of documents on which the decision was based to include billionaire Oleg Deripaska in the list of “Kremlin oligarchs”, and impose sanctions on him.
• Billionaire Oleg Deripaska has filed a petition for the lifting of sanctions against him from the Department of the Treasury of Foreign Assets (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury. The request for the lifting of sanctions “in administrative procedure” was submitted on June 27, 2019.

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