Reported by: U.S. Department of Justice

VLADIMIR VORONCHENKO, who resided at various times in New York, New York, Southampton, New York, Fisher Island, Florida, and Russia, held himself out as a successful businessman, art collector, and art dealer, and as a close friend and business associate of Viktor Vekselberg.

On April 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) designated Vekselberg as a Specially Designated National (“SDN”) in connection with its finding that the actions of the Government of the Russian Federation in Ukraine constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.  On or about March 11, 2022, OFAC redesignated Vekselberg as an SDN and blocked Vekselberg’s yacht and private airplane.

Prior to his designation by OFAC, between in or about 2008 and in or about 2017, Vekselberg, through a series of shell companies, acquired real properties in the United States, specifically, (i) an apartment on Park Avenue in New York, New York, (ii) an estate in Southampton, New York, (iii) an apartment on Fisher Island, Florida, and (iv) a penthouse apartment also on Fisher Island, Florida (collectively, “the Properties”).  As of the date of this Indictment, the Properties were worth approximately $75 million. 

VORONCHENKO retained an attorney (the “Attorney”), who practiced in New York, New York, in connection with the acquisition of the Properties.  The Attorney also managed the finances of the Properties, including by paying common charges, property taxes, insurance premiums, and other fees associated with the Properties in U.S. dollar transactions from the Attorney’s interest on lawyer’s trust account (“IOLTA account”).

Prior to Vekselberg’s designation as an SDN, between approximately February 2009 and March 2018, shell companies owned by Vekselberg sent approximately 90 wire transfers totaling approximately $18.5 million to the IOLTA account.  At the direction of VORONCHENKO and his family member who lived in Russia, the Attorney used these funds to make various U.S. dollar payments to maintain and service the Properties. 

Immediately after Vekselberg’s designation as an SDN, the source of the funds used to maintain and service the Properties changed. The IOLTA Account began to receive wires from a bank account in the Bahamas held in the name of a shell company controlled by VOROCHENKO, “Smile Holding Ltd.,” and from a Russian bank account held in the name of a Russian national who was related to VORONCHENKO. Between approximately June 2018 and March 2022, approximately 25 wire transfers totaling approximately $4 million were sent to the IOLTA account. Although the source of the payments changed, the management of the payments remained the same as before: VORONCHENKO and his family member directed the Attorney to use these funds to make various U.S. dollar payments to maintain and service the Properties. Additionally, after Vekselberg was sanctioned in 2018, VORONCHENKO and others tried to sell both the Park Avenue apartment and the Southampton estate. No licenses from OFAC were applied for or issued for these payments or attempted transfers.

Read full report: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/associate-sanctioned-oligarch-indicted-sanctions-evasion-and-money-laundering