Justice Dept. Charges Russian Oligarch With Violating Sanctions

Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement on Wednesday that the sanctions barred Mr. Malofeev from paying or receiving services from American citizens, or from conducting transactions with his property in the United States.

“He systematically flouted those restrictions for years,” Mr. Williams said.

Mr. Malofeev, who is believed to be in Russia, remains at large, the Justice Department said. Mr. Garland said the department had seized “millions of dollars” from a U.S. financial institution that are believed to trace back to Mr. Malofeev.

The Justice Department also said it was taking steps to counter nefarious activity online, including disrupting a bot network organized by the Russian government’s military intelligence agency.

Mr. Garland also announced the seizure of Hydra Market, a Russian-language darknet market that processed sales of drugs, forged passports and other documents, and stolen financial data. The department said that it believed the market accounted for 80 percent of cryptocurrency transactions on the dark web, and that roughly $5.2 billion in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had been seized with help from German authorities.

The announcement came in tandem with new sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies on Wednesday targeting some of Russia’s largest banks.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/us/politics/justice-department-russian-oligarch-charged.html