FBI agents are destroying property in the United States linked to Russian billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Deripaska, which has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was subjected to US sanctions in 2018.
The oligarch’s spokesman told Reuters news agency that the FBI is ransacking two homes owned by relatives of Mr. Deripaska under court warrants related to such sanctions.
The images showed officers carrying boxes out of a Washington DC home.
Others stood guard outside behind the yellow crime scene tape.
The rep said another property in New York was also searched.
So far it is not clear exactly why the research is taking place. An FBI spokesperson told NBC News that the agency was conducting “policing” on the Washington DC property, without providing further details.
Mr. Deripaska, 53, made his fortune in the 1990s as a metals broker. In 1997 he founded the Basic Element industrial group, one of the largest in Russia, of which he still owns.
The US Treasury sanctioned Deripaska in 2018 along with six other Russian oligarchs, as well as a number of their own companies and senior Russian government officials.
Steve Mnuchin, then Treasury Secretary, said the move was a response to Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, which Moscow denies.
“The Russian government is engaged in a variety of malicious activities around the world”, a statement issued at the time She said. “The Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be shielded from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.”
A year later, US President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on three Deripaska-related companies after it relinquished control, a move criticized by Democratic politicians. However, the penalties remained on the tycoon himself.
Deripaska also has ties to Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for President Trump who was convicted of fraud before his pardon by Trump in December 2020.
In 2016 the Guardian newspaper reported that Mr. Manafort had worked with Mr. Deripaska on investment agreements in Ukraine.
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