NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. federal agents on Thursday simultaneously searched properties in Manhattan, the posh seaside community of Southampton, New York, and on an exclusive Miami island that have been linked to a billionaire Russian oligarch whose yacht valued at $120 million dollars was seized in April. .
The FBI confirmed he was at a Park Avenue high-rise and a Southampton property on Thursday, without providing further information. Dozens of federal agents could be seen removing boxes from the Park Avenue property.
FBI agents and Homeland Security Investigations personnel searched properties linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. There was no immediate response to a request for comment sent to lawyers who have represented Vekselberg.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Vekselberg was the target of the searches. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
A similar search occurred on Fisher Island, a stone’s throw from Miami Beach, where scores of agents from the FBI and other federal agencies could be seen on property linked to Vekselberg and his associates.
nbc news first reported the searches
A federal task force has been investigating Russian oligarchs and the money trail that helps fuel Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the task force is working to enforce US financial restrictions placed on Russia and its billionaires. . A spokesman for the task force declined to comment.
Vekselberg, a Ukrainian-born businessman, made a fortune by investing in the aluminum and oil industries in the post-Soviet era. According to US Treasury Department documents, Vekselberg heads Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, technology and other assets.
He was one of the first Putin allies sanctioned in April 2018 by the US Treasury Department in response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Vekselberg’s US assets are frozen and US companies are prohibited from doing business with him and his entities.
In April, the US government seized a 254-foot yacht owned by Vekselberg in a port in Spain. At the time, the US Department of Justice stated that the yacht could be seized for violations of US bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions laws.
All properties searched Thursday are owned by Vekselberg’s childhood friend, Vladimir Voronchenko, or by companies linked to Voronchenko’s family and associates. Voronchenko was the founding director of a St. Petersburg museum built to house the oligarch’s collection of Fabergé eggs.
Among the properties were four luxury condominiums on Fisher Island. Three were purchased for a combined $42 million, but are worth much more today, property records show. Two are owned by The Medallion Inc., a Panama-registered company that includes Voronchenko’s wife, Olesya Kharlamova, as director.
Kharlamova, who like her husband was born and raised in the Ukraine, is also a condominium association official for two luxury skyscrapers on Fisher Island, which is so favored by Russian jet-setters that they’ve been dubbed the ” Red zone”. by other residents. Amenities include infinity pools, a state-of-the-art theater, and a fur coat storage facility to protect garments from the Miami humidity.
In New York, Medallion Inc. in 2008 paid nearly $11 million for a penthouse at 515 Park Avenue in Manhattan and $11.4 million for the Southampton home. Both were registered on Thursday.
Voronchenko’s family and associates did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
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Goodman reported from Miami.
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