The new penalties target those who knowingly assisted oligarchs as they hid assets in complex financial networks (Oligarch s wife Oksana Marchenko pictured).
it s a long, long journey. having just taken it from an oligarch, it has some serious security risks. we needed a new crew, a crew that we could rely on. security, security, security, all stations, all stations, all stations. this is the united states coastguard sector, san diego. after nearly three weeks of sailing, the amadea finally arrived in the port of san diego, california. inbound yacht, the amadea. we re approaching ballast point at 10 knots. three days later, the us treasury also blocked over $1 billion worth of assets in a trust, which they say is linked to kerimov. i felt vindicated that our facts and our legal arguments were correct, but that s really the beginning of a process here in the united states, it s not the end. the us s ultimate goal is to sell the vessel and send the proceeds to ukraine. at the end of the day, we may have the ability
he s been a billionaire. but we do know some aspects about his life he s a man who likes the finer side of life and doesn t always think that money should be spent in russia. in 2006, kerimov crashed his ferrari in the french riviera, nearly dying from his burns. a decade later, he was investigated in france, and in 2018, he was sanctioned by the us for being an official of the government of the russian federation. with a net worth around $10 billion, kerimov allegedly bought the amadea last year in august. it s on this transaction that kleptocapture focused their attention. it is improbable that that boat wasn t either purchased with or heavily financed by us dollars. that gives us a hook. while kleptocapture looked into the yacht s financing, amadea had slipped its moorings in the caribbean and was heading for the panama canal.
powerful, invasive laws. we have a more aggressive forfeiture system that goes beyond simply freezing an asset in place. but it takes those assets and makes them the property of the united states. but before they can do that, there s one more major hurdle. ultimately, we have to prove in court that suleyman kerimov is the owner of this boat, and that the boat itself represents the proceeds of a sanctions violation on his behalf. and that is no easy task. identifying ownership of yachts is extremely complex. yachts are never owned in the name of the oligarch themselves. they ll be owned through a series of companies in tax havens around the world, which are difficult to investigate. while the us authorities have identified kerimov as the owner of the amadea, on paper, the yacht belongs to a company registered offshore,