BAL HARBOUR, Fla. – The U.S. government is moving to seize a Russian oligarch’s luxury South Florida condominiums as part of a series of arrests, indictments and civil forfeiture actions against Russian businessmen ahead of the two-year anniversary of the country’s Feb. 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The residences in question, owned by construction magnate Viktor Perevalov, are located at the Ritz-Carlton Bal Harbour, Miami, at 10295 Collins Ave. next to Haulover Inlet. Officials say they’re worth $2.5 million combined.
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The U.S. Department of Justice announced the actions against Perevalov and others Thursday as part of its Task Force KleptoCapture.
According to the DOJ, Perevalov, along with Valeri Abramov, own VAD, AO, a construction company responsible for building a highway in Russian-occupied Crimea in eastern Ukraine.
The pair, and the company, were sanctioned in 2018 after Russia invaded Crimea.
Nevertheless, authorities allege that Perevalov worked with a Miami real estate agent, identified solely by the initials “R.S.,” to transfer units 1616 and 1617 to an LLC called “1616 Collins LLC,” purportedly owned by a minor relative of the businessman, in violation of the sanctions.
“After the transfer, R.S. continued to lease the Defendant Properties, collected proceeds derived from the Defendant Properties, and used those proceeds to maintain the Defendant Properties including by making property tax payments,” a DOJ news release states.
Elsewhere in Florida, Serhiy Kurchenko, a sanctioned pro-Russian Ukrainian metals magnate, was indicted for trying to evade sanctions, among other charges.
Charges were also unsealed in New York against sanctioned Russian banker Andrei Kostin and two of his U.S.-based facilitators. The facilitators, Vadim Wolfson and Gannon Bond, were arrested Thursday.
Kostin is the longtime president of VTB Bank, a state-owned bank and Russia’s second largest. He is charged with engaging in a scheme to evade sanctions and launder money to support two superyachts. Kostin and the two facilitators are also accused of trying to evade sanctions related to a luxury home in Aspen, Colorado.
Michael Khoo, a co-director of Task Force KleptoCapture, said on a call with reporters that the announcement was meant to send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “we’re not going away” and “we can play the long game as well” so long as the war continues.
The KleptoCapture task force enforces the economic restrictions within the U.S. imposed on Russia and its billionaires.
The Justice Department says over the past two years it has secured court orders for the restraint, seizure, and forfeiture of nearly $700 million in assets and has charged more than 70 people with violating sanctions and export controls.
“The Justice Department is more committed than ever to cutting off the flow of illegal funds that are fueling Putin’s war and to holding accountable those who continue to enable it,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement.
“That is why today we are announcing several additional enforcement actions that the Justice Department has taken to bring prosecutions against and seize assets of sanctioned enablers of the Kremlin and Russian military.”
Also Thursday, an indictment was unsealed in Washington, D.C., charging Vladislav Osipov with bank fraud connected to operating a 255-foot luxury yacht owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Osipov, a Russian national, lives in Switzerland.
The indictment identifies the superyacht as the Tango, the first belonging to a sanctioned Russian with close ties to the Kremlin to be seized at the request of the U.S. government following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And in Georgia, Feliks Medvedev pleaded guilty earlier this month to helping launder over $150 million through bank accounts he controls. Medvedev, a Russian citizen, lives in Buford, Georgia.