US Treasury slaps $7.1M fine on New York firm for managing properties for Putin ally

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department imposed a $7.1 million fine on a New York-based property management firm Thursday, accusing it of violating sanctions by managing luxury real estate properties for oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said Gracetown Inc. had received 24 payments between April 2018 and May 2020 totaling $31,250 on behalf of a company owned by Deripaska. OFAC says it gave Gracetown notice that dealings with Deripaska were prohibited, but the firm proceeded anyway.

Justice Department filings from 2022 connect Gracetown Inc. with U.K. businessman Graham Bonham-Carter, who was arrested in October 2022 for conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska as well as for wire fraud connected to funding Deripaska’s U.S. properties and efforts to expatriate the oligarch’s artwork to New York.

A lawyer who has represented Deripaska previously didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Gracetown couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Deripaska has faced economic sanctions since 2018, when the Treasury Department accused him of acting for or on behalf of a senior Russian official and operating in the energy sector of the Russian economy. All of his assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction were blocked, and U.S. people and firms are prohibited from dealings related to Deripaska, his properties and his interest in properties.

Deripaska sued The Associated Press in 2017 over a story that March about his business dealings with Paul Manafort, a former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump. Deripaska said the AP article was inaccurate and hurt his career by falsely accusing him of criminal activity. A federal judge dismissed the defamation and libel lawsuit that October.

In 2022, Deripaska and three associates were criminally charged in New York with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and plotting to ensure his child was born in the United States.

Treasury says its Thursday enforcement action against Gracetown “highlights the importance of following OFAC-issued guidance and the significant consequences that can occur from failing to do so.”

John K. Hurley, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial Intelligence, said “we will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who enable sanctioned actors.”

Gracetown was established in 2006 to manage three luxury real estate properties in New York and Washington, D.C., that Deripaska acquired around the same time through various legal entities.