Cash is king for sanctioned oligarchs
MIAMI>> It was a deal that brought together oligarchs from some of America’s top adversaries.
“The key is the cash,” the oil broker wrote in a text message, offering a deep discount on Venezuelan crude shipments to an associate who claimed to be fronting for the owner of Russia’s biggest aluminum company. “As soon as you are ready with cash we can work.”
The communication was included in a 49-page indictment unsealedwednesday in New York federal court charging seven individuals with conspiring to purchase sensitive U.S. military technology, smuggle oil and launder tens of millions of dollars on behalf of wealthy Russian businessmen.
The frank talk among codefendants reads like a how-to guide on circumventing U. S. sanctions — complete with Hong Kong shell companies, bulk cash pickups, phantom oil tankers and the use of cryptocurrency to cloak transactions that are illicit under U.S. law
It also shines a light on
how wealthy insiders from Russia and its ally Venezuela, both barred from the western financial system, are making common cause to protect theirmassive fortunes.
At the center of the alleged conspiracy are two Russians: Yury Orekhov, who used to work for a publicly traded aluminumcom
pany sanctioned by the U.S., and Artem Uss, the son of a wealthy governor allied with the Kremlin.
The two are partners in a Hamburg, Germanybased company trading in industrial equipment and commodities. Prosecutors allege the company was a hub for skirting U. S. sanctions first imposed against
Russian elites following the 2014 invasion of Crimea. Both were arrested, in Germany and Italy respectively, on U. S. charges, including conspiracy to violate sanctions, money laundering and bank fraud.
On the other end of the deal was Juan Fernando Serrano, the CEO of a commodities trading startup
known as Treseus with offices in Dubai, Italy and his native Spain. His whereabouts are unknown.
In electronic communications among the men last year, each side boasted of connections to powerful insiders.
“This is our mother company,” Orehkov wrote to Serrano, pasting a link to the aluminum company’s website and a link to the owner’s Wikipedia page. “He is under sanctions as well. That’s why we (are) acting from this company.”
Serrano, not to be outdone, responded that his partner was also sanctioned.
“He is one of the influence people in Venezuela. Super close to the Vice President,” he wrote, posting a link showing search results for a Venezuelan lawyer and businessman who is currently wanted by the U. S. on money laundering and bribery charges.
Neither alleged partner was charged in the case, nor are they identified by name in the indictment. Additionally, it’s not clear what ties, if any, Serrano really has to the Venezuelan insider he cited.
But the description of the Russian billionairematches that of Oleg Deripaska, who was charged last month in a separate sanctions case in New York. Some of the proceeds he allegedly funneled to the U.S. were to support a Uzbekistani track and field Olympic athlete while she gave birth to their child in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan is media magnate Raul Gorrin, according to someone close to U. S. law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Gorrin remains in Venezuela and is on the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’smost-wanted list for allegedly masterminding a scheme to siphon $1.2 billion from PDVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company.