The Treasury Department is announcing new measures to punish Russian oligarchs who have been devising ways to get around sanctions imposed on Russia over their aggression in Ukraine.
"From the Treasury Department to the Justice Department, U.S. officials will focus on efforts to legally liquidate the property of Russian oligarchs, expand financial penalties on those who facilitate the evasion of sanctions, and close loopholes in the law that allow oligarchs to use shell companies to move through the U.S. financial system.
Andrew Adams, who heads the U.S. government’s KleptoCapture task force, designed to enforce the economic restrictions within the U.S. imposed on Russia and its billionaires, told The Associated Press that the group is prioritizing its efforts to identify those who help Russians evade sanctions and violate export controls. [snip]
So far, more than $58 billion worth of sanctioned Russians’ assets have been blocked or frozen worldwide, according to a report last week from the Treasury Department. That includes two luxury yachts each worth $300 million in San Diego and Fiji, and six New York and Florida properties worth $75 million owned by sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg." (our emphasis)
If we can engage in a little Monday morning quarterbacking, realizing that efforts of this kind are very complex and difficult, it's disappointing that these measures weren't applied months ago. Every week that went by that Russian oligarchs were able to channel funds to Putin's criminal war efforts was a missed opportunity to spare Ukraine some missile attacks. As we've said before, each announcement of "new sanctions" begs the question of why did we not impose them earlier, rather than incrementally? We hope it's not a fear of war criminal Putin's bluster, or our own financial entanglement with these corrupt oligarchs.
