British citizen arrested for helping Putin ally evade sanctions

A British man was arrested in Spain for extradition to the U.S. for helping an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin evade sanctions.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that Richard Masters, 52, was arrested by the Spanish Guardia Civil last Friday.

DoJ said his Russian-Swiss co-accused Vladislav Osipov remained at large.

The pair were charged separately, in indictments unsealed in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, with facilitating a scheme for oligarch Viktor Vekselberg connected to his 90-million-dollar, 255-foot (77-metre) yacht Tango.

The DoJ said the pair were charged with conspiracy to defraud and to commit offences against the U.S.

It noted that this meant violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and money laundering.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Mr Vekselberg in April 2018 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, with Washington strengthening the measures in March 2022 following Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The UK, Australia and Poland also joined Washington in March in seizing Mr Vekselberg’s assets and imposing travel bans, with the DoJ seizing Tango in Spain the next month.

The department alleged that Mr Masters ran a yacht company in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, which he used to manage Tango after initial sanctions were imposed in 2018.

It claimed Messrs Masters and Osipov used U.S. firms and the American financial system to mask Mr Vekselberg’s involvement with the vessel. Mr Osipov was said to have used a complex structure of shell companies to hide ownership.

Mr Masters allegedly devised a scheme that involved calling the yacht “the Fanta,’’ hiding from banks the hundreds of thousands of pounds in U.S. currency payments ultimately to Mr Vekselberg’s benefit.

U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said, “Facilitators of sanctions evasion enable the oligarchs supporting Vladimir Putin’s regime to flout U.S. law. The U.S. will not allow its financial institutions and persons to be manipulated or defrauded for the purposes of benefitting those supporting an illegal war.’’

Director Andrew Adams of department task force KleptoCapture said Mr Masters had to face the “consequences’’ of his actions.

“The Department of Justice has been clear. Corporations and executives have a choice. They can participate in the global effort to uproot corruption, sanctions violations, and money laundering and enjoy the benefits of prompt and fulsome cooperation,” he said. “Also, they can, as Osipov and Masters are alleged to have done, attempt to shield themselves and their clients behind a veil of fraud.”