WASHINGTON -- The United States has charged Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska with violating sanctions by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to arrange to have his partner flown to the United States twice to give birth to his children.
The acts violated U.S. sanctions that were imposed in 2018 against Deripaska, 52, because of his close ties to the Russian government and its seizure of the Crimea region of Ukraine, the Justice Department said in a news release.
The Justice Department unsealed the charges on September 29 following at least a yearlong investigation into the tycoon’s business dealings in the United States that included a raid on his home in Washington in October 2021.
The department said that Natalia Bardakova, 45, a Russian citizen based in Russia and U.S.-based Olga Shriki, 42, a naturalized U.S. citizen, helped Deripaska arrange for Yekaterina Voronina, 33, to travel to the U.S. by private jet on a tourism visa in 2020 for the birth of their first child and again for the birth of their second in 2022.
The first effort was successful and the child was born in the United States and automatically received U.S. citizenship. But in June 2022 Voronina was refused entry after concealing the tycoon was funding her trip.
Authorities said Deripaska spent at least $300,000 on medical care, housing, childcare, and other logistics to support Voronina when she traveled to the U.S. in 2020.
Following the birth, Deripaska's three co-defendants conspired to conceal that the Russian tycoon was the child's father by slightly misspelling the child's last name, the indictment said.
Bardakova and Shriki also worked to manage Deripaska's properties in the United States and to launder some $3 million from the sale of one of his businesses, a music studio in California, according to the Justice Department.
Only one of the four people charged -- Shriki -- is in custody. She was arrested on September 29 and released on a $2 million bond after an appearance in federal court. She did not enter a plea.
Prosecutors said in the news release that Deripaska lied and evaded U.S. sanctions as he sought to benefit from life in America “despite his cozy ties with the Kremlin and his vast wealth acquired through ties to a corrupt regime.”
Erich Ferrari, a lawyer for Deripaska, declined to comment, according to Reuters.
Deripaska, Bardakova, and Shriki, are charged with one count of conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Shriki is further charged in one count of destruction of records, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Bardakova and Voronina are each further charged with one count of making false statements to federal agents, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Deripaska and Bardakova reside in Russia. The Justice Department could request their extradition should they travel to any of the dozens of countries that have such treaties with the United States.
The United States sanctioned Deripaska in April 2018 as part of a sweeping package of asset freezes and financial restrictions slapped on more than two dozen Russian political and business elites thought to have close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin as Washington sought to punish the Kremlin for “malign activity around the globe,” including aggression against Ukraine.
Deripaska is one of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen, owning stakes in a wide range of businesses including aluminum, power, and auto production. He acquired his initial wealth during the chaotic privatizations of the 1990s when he scooped up stakes on the cheap in aluminum smelters.
His business empire flourished during Putin’s first two terms in office from 2000 to 2008 when he snapped up businesses in various industries and, at one point, became the nation’s wealthiest man. According to Forbes magazine, he is worth $2.8 billion.
In targeting Deripaska with sanctions, the United States claimed he acted or purported to act for senior Russian government officials as well as for operating in Russia’s energy sector.
Evidence of Deripaska’s close ties to the Russian government surfaced when a video was published online showing him vacationing in 2016 on a yacht near Norway with Sergei Prikhodko, who at the time was a deputy prime minister and top foreign policy adviser.
The sanctions put a freeze on any assets belonging to Deripaska in the United States, including bank accounts and property.
However, Deripaska continued to “maintain and retain” the three luxury properties, including the one in Washington and two in New York, with the help of his associates and shell companies.