Page 40 - BNE_magazine_03_2020 wellness

40 I Eastern Europe bne March 2020
The US Treasury Department has accused Russian tycoon Deripaska of laundering money in a letter sent to his lawyers, but the claims are not underpinned by any real evidence.
US Treasury Department accuses Russian tycoon Deripaska of laundering money but offers no evidence
Ben Aris in Berlin
The US Treasury Department (USTD) has justified sanctions on companies belonging to Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska on hearsay
and news reports as well as erroneous information, according to a letter provided to the Russian businessman’s lawyers, a copy of which has been obtained by bne IntelliNews.
Deripaska has been attempting to clear his name since the USTD was forced into a humiliating climbdown at the start
of last year, when stringent sanctions that were imposed on his assets on April 6, 2018 had to be withdrawn as unworkable in January 2019 – they were the first sanctions on Moscow
to be dropped since sanctions were imposed in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The sanctions specifically targeted Deripaska’s Rusal metallurgical business and caused chaos on the international metal markets as a result.
The new document has been used by
www.bne.eu
the USTD to justify fresh sanctions on Deripaska. It cites reports that Deripaska laundered money for Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), the agency that oversees US sanctions policy, sent a letter to Deripaska’s lawyers presenting the evidence that the threat of sanctions is based on claiming that he was “reportedly identified as one of
the individuals holding assets and laundering funds on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” the letter said as cited by the FT. OFAC said
in the letter that it was only listing “unclassified” sources, suggesting it has more classified evidence, although OFAC did not say this explicitly.
Deripaska has sued OFAC and demanded that it release the details of the accusations against him so he can defend himself, but so far he has had no success with his demands. As for the
accusations that Deripaska laundered money for Putin, Dimitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, as cited by the FT, said: “That’s not true. As simple as that.”
Unsubstantiated claims
Many of the claims and justifications in the letter are risible and indicate prejudgements, or are simply unsubstantiated.
Sochi: The first of six reasons on
the list is that in January 2012 then Prime Minister Putin “compelled” Russian oligarchs to invest in projects associated with the 2014 Olympics. Deripaska invested $800mn into various projects through his company Basic Elements, such as the construction of Sochi International Airport enabling visitors to fly directly to the city. All
of the projects were commissioned on
a commercial basis. Moreover, Basic Elements undertook this construction with respectable international partners such as Germany’s Strabag.