Russian oligarch’s US assets seized in sanctions crackdown by FBI

Harriet Alexander

Alec Luhn

THE FBI has reportedly frozen the US assets of Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch, in a continued crackdown on Vladimir Putin’s allies.

The industrialist, worth an estimated $3.3billion (£2.5billion), was placed on a list of individuals sanctioned by the US treasury in April. The government has now frozen his US assets, including properties in Manhattan and Washington DC, according to The New York Post.

Officials are also in talks with him to give up some of his European operations to keep them running free of sanctions, the treasury said.

A Central Park town house bought for $42.5million in 2008 are among the assets thought to be seized. The fivestorey home was owned by Alec Wildenstein, the late international art dealer, and then-wife, Jocelyn, known as “the bride of Wildenstein” after undergoing extreme plastic surgery.

The property is listed as the address for the children and ex-wife of Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea FC owner who was Mr Deripaska’s friend and former business partner. According to the US treasury, anyone who does business with a sanctioned person could also be subject to penalties.

Mr Abramovich recently transferred property worth $92 million (£70 million) to his ex-wife Dasha Zhukova, a patron of the arts who is close friends with Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka. Ms Zhukova is now dating Stavros Niarchos, the Greek shipping heir, while her ex-husband is reportedly dating Polina Deripaska, Mr Deripaska’s estranged wife.

Mr Deripaska is also believed to own one of the most prestigious homes in Washington DC. The seven-bedroom mansion, featuring Italian marble floors and a chandelier from the Paris Opera House, was sold to him for $15million in 2006. The 50-year-old, who has not entered the US since he was placed under sanctions in the spring, is under scrutiny for links to money-laundering, bribery, racketeering and murder, treasury sources said.

The sanctions are meant to deter Russia from its aggressive campaign to weaken the West. The FBI did not respond to a request for a comment.