An associate of a Russian billionaire was charged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday with violating US sanctions and money laundering.
The indictment charged Vladimir Voronchenko, a Russian who is a permanent resident of the US, with joining a scheme to make payments of more than $4 million to maintain four US properties belonging to sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Authorities said Voronchenko also tried to sell two of those properties.
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Voronchenko was also held in contempt of court for fleeing the US after receiving a grand jury subpoena last May in Fisher Island, Florida, requiring his testimony. Voronchenko took a flight from Miami to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and then to Moscow, authorities said.
A Russian-born US citizen has been charged with conspiring to help a sanctioned oligarch keep his US properties.
Voronchenko, 70, has lived in Moscow, Manhattan, Southampton, New York and Fisher Island, Florida, while promoting himself as a successful businessman, art collector and dealer, and a close friend and business partner of Vekselberg, whose yacht and private plane were blocked. last year by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, US officials said in a statement.
The statement said that Vekselberg, through a series of shell companies, has owned some $75 million worth of real estate, including an apartment in Manhattan, a property in Southampton, New York, along with an apartment in Fisher Island, Florida, and a penthouse there.
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Authorities said Voronchenko and others tried to sell the Manhattan apartment and the Southampton property after Vekselberg was sanctioned in 2018 by the US Treasury Office.
It was not immediately clear if Voronchenko has a lawyer.
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Federal agents searched several of the properties connected to Voronchenko and Vekselberg in September.
