The Department of Justice is seeking to seize $75 million of luxury real estate in Miami Beach, the Hamptons and New York City owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg as part of Operation ‘KleptoCapture’, NBC has confirmed. News.
Viktor Vekselberg is a billionaire and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Court documents, which were filed on Friday, reveal details after the raids carried out by the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security investigative team.
Prosecutors allege that previously indicted Vekselberg associate Vladimir Voronchenko violated US sanctions and was involved in international money laundering.
According to prosecutors, after Vekselberg was sanctioned in 2018, Voronchenko attempted to sell the Park Avenue and Southampton property in New York without obtaining proper U.S. approval in violation of sanctions laws.
Voronchenko received a grand jury subpoena in May last year on Fisher Island, an exclusive Florida island, and, according to prosecutors, flew from Miami to Dubai and then flew to Moscow May 22. He remains a fugitive to this day, according to prosecutors.
In April, the United States seized Vekselberg’s $90 million superyacht in Spain. The seizure was one of the first sanctions imposed targeting the assets of Russian elites in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Vekselberg was also investigated by the Justice Department over allegations of bank fraud, although no charges were brought.