The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added four Russians and a Ukrainian to its list of those sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act for alleged human rights abuses.
With the names added Monday, OFAC has now listed 39 people subject to travel bans and asset freezes under the Magnitsky Act. Most on the list were implicated in the jailing and death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The U.S. adopted the Magnitsky Act in 2012. It imposes sanctions on those responsible for the 36-year-old lawyer’s detention, abuse, or death. It also reaches those who concealed his mistreatment, or were involved in or benefited from the criminal conspiracy he uncovered.
Magnitsky died in custody in 2009 after uncovering a $230 million tax fraud against the Russian treasury. His evidence implicated a number of government officials and mobsters. The Russian government has said Magnitsky died of natural causes while in jail.
OFAC published the initial Magnitsky sanction list in April 2013. It included 18 individuals. A second list of individuals banned from entering the United States was classified, the State Department said.
Monday’s OFAC announcement named Aleksei Anichin, a deputy interior minister linked to Magnitsky’s death and the subsequent cover up. Then-President Dmitry Medvedev fired Anichin from his post.
Pavel Lapshov, the head of the Interior Ministry’s investigative department, reportedly said Magnitsky’s employer, London-based Hermitage Capital Management, was behind the $230 million tax fraud Magnitsky uncovered.
Boris Kibis was an investigator for the Russian Interior Ministry. During 2011-2012, he was in charge of the posthumous criminal proceeding against Magnitsky. Kibis issued multiple summonses to Magnitsky’s mother and tried to remove her lawyer who challenged the legitimacy of the posthumous proceedings.
Oleg Urzhumtsev was also an investigator from the Russian Interior Ministry. He allegedly had coordinated travel with key suspects in the $230 million criminal conspiracy he was supposed to investigate, including a trip with two suspects to Ukraine and back to Russia during July 2008.
In September 2013, the DOJ filed a civil forfeiture action against the assets of nine companies that own real estate in Manhattan. The complaint named firms that allegedly laundered a portion of the $230 million stolen through the tax fraud that Magnitsky uncovered.
The targeted property included four luxury residential units and two high-end commercial spaces.
* * *
Here are the names OFAC added Monday to the Specially Designated Nationals List under the Magnitsky Act:
ANICHIN, Aleksey Vasilyevich (a.k.a. ANICHIN, Alexei Vasilievich); DOB 01 Dec 1949; POB Sevastopol, Ukraine (individual) [MAGNIT].
ANTONOV, Yevgeni Yuvenalievich; DOB 1955; nationality Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KIBIS, Boris Borisovich; DOB 20 Nov 1977; nationality Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
LAPSHOV, Pavel Vladimirovich; DOB 07 Jul 1976; nationality Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
URZHUMTSEV, Oleg Vyacheslavovich; DOB 22 Oct 1968; citizen Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
____
Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
Comments are closed for this article!