Merrick Garland’s DOJ Seizes Millions From Russian Oligarchs

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Caleb Newton
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The U.S. Justice Department is helping lead the charge in support of Ukraine’s defense against the invasion recently launched by Russia’s Vladimir Putin. This Wednesday, officials unveiled a series of actions targeting interests with ties to Putin, including Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, who the Justice Department has indicted for sanctions violations. As summarized by Attorney General Merrick Garland, Malofeyev “attempted to evade [U.S.] sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe.” Millions of dollars connected to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations have also been seized from an account at a U.S. financial institution. In announcing the seizure, Garland didn’t specify the institution.

The U.S. also recently carried out its apparent first seizure of a Russian oligarch-owned yacht in connection to the war in Ukraine. The values of these vessels, which have been seized by multiple national governments, routinely reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars, so the impacts of the seizures stand to be significant. The yacht seized by the U.S. is known as the Tango and measures some 254 feet, while a website called Superyachtfan.com pinned the craft’s worth at $120 million, according to the Associated Press. The vessel is owned by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg — and according to Garland, on the same day that the Vekselberg seizure was carried out, U.S. authorities “obtained seizure warrants targeting the assets of several additional sanctioned Russian nationals.” The Attorney General didn’t identify the individuals.

Summarizing the department’s position, Garland — who was speaking at a Wednesday press conference — remarked as follows:

‘Our message to those who continue to enable the Russian regime through their criminal conduct is this: It does not matter how far you sail your yacht. It does not matter how well you conceal your assets. It does not matter how cleverly you write your malware or hide your online activity. The Justice Department will use every available tool to find you, disrupt your plots, and hold you accountable. Finally, I cannot close without acknowledging the horrible images that all of us have seen coming out of Ukraine — particularly from Bucha — this week… This Department has a long history of helping to hold accountable those who perpetrate war crimes. One of my predecessors — Attorney General Robert Jackson — later served as the chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. Today, we are assisting international efforts to identify and hold accountable those responsible for atrocities in Ukraine. And we will continue to do so.’

Even before disturbing images emerged from recently liberated areas (such as Bucha) surrounding Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the Biden administration believed Russian personnel to be guilty of war crimes in Ukraine. In Bucha, some of the apparently hundreds of civilians who were killed were found with hands tied, and torture was reported. Scenes in nearby areas were similarly disturbing — in Irpin, another Kyiv suburb, the mayor recently estimated that some 320 civilians had died. The acting mayor of Borodyanka, another nearby jurisdiction, said it’s thought that “over 200 people died” there — although “it is an assumption,” he added. In Hostomel, over 400 people are missing, according to reports. And in the large city of Mariupol, which has been targeted by Russian forces for weeks, mobile crematoriums run by Russians have begun to operate, and local officials fear the true death toll there could reach the tens of thousands.



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