The USA believes that Deripaska could wash money for Putin

Secret grounds for sanctions against Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, introduced in 2018, have been disclosed. All of them were connected with Vladimir Putin.

The US Treasury considered that Deripaska hid the laundering and transfer of funds in the personal interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin, writes Financial Times. The publication publishes a response to the Office for Foreign Assembly (OFAC) of the US Treasury to a letter of defense of the billionaire with a request to disclose secret grounds for sanctions.

What you need to know about the answer of OFAC

Secret bases for sanctions consist of six points. Each of them contains the word “supposedly” or synonym, the name of the president (or prime minister) Vladimir Putin, and there are no sources of information or details. OFAC claims that:

• Deripaska, among other oligarchs at the request of Putin, invested $ 800 million in the Olympic projects in Sochi.
• As of the beginning of 2018, Deripaska carried out financial projects on behalf of Putin and the highest leadership of Russia.
• Deripaska, as of September 2017, abolished the IPO of his company "Gas" to hide the laundering of Putin's money through it.
• In December 2016, Deripaska was named among persons disposing of assets and laundering money in the interests of Putin.
• In July 2011 and earlier Deripaska, at least once, under the guise of business operations, transferred funds for personal use by then Prime Minister Putin.
• At the end of 2004, according to Putin's oral order, Deripaska participated in a meeting at a high level of representatives of Russia and Kyrgyzstan.

“This is not true. That's all, ”Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov commented on the newspaper.

“They do not give facts. Just guesses, rumors and gossip, ”Deripaska himself said FT. - These are groundless accusations. This is complete nonsense instead of the presumption of innocence before the reversal of the court ”(FT quotes).

Regarding the last prosecution, the billionaire explained that it was about the failed UC Rusal project in Kyrgyzstan, the discussion of which was conducted at the end of 2003. “Some American diplomat heard a hearing and handed it over. If someone came to the London court with this, the judge would immediately tell him-“went out,” Deripaska commented.

What you need to know about Deripaska sanctions

Sanctions against Deripaska and US companies were introduced on April 6, 2018. The shares of the largest of them, UC Rusal, after which fell on the Hong Kong Exchange in a matter of days. The sanctions were threatened by the International Business of UC Rusal: until December 2018, the company worked for export on temporal permits of OFAC.

At the beginning of 2019, the US Treasury has lifted sanctions from three Deripaska companies - EN+, UC Rusal and Eurosibenergo, but not from the billionaire itself. But for this he had to refuse to control in business .

What's next

The party of Deripaska filed an OFAC in Washington, intending to prove that the decision on sanctions against him is not based on facts. The publication of grounds for sanctions is one of the first stages of proceedings. According to Deripaska himself, a court decision to wait another one and a half years.