The US will seize $5.3 million from Konstantin Malofeev. He himself said that he has no property in the West

US prosecutors intend to withdraw $5.3 million from the accounts of Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, follows from a document filed with the Southern District of New York.

Details. The asset will be arrested as part of a criminal case on a possible circumvention of sanctions. In early April, the US Attorney General reported that an American citizen, John Hanick, provided a Russian businessman with goods, services and attracted funding on his behalf, and also helped hide his ownership of assets in Texas.

• Malofeev himself then stated that since 2014 he has neither money nor property in the West. However, according to a court document released on Thursday, the entrepreneur had a $5.3 million deposit at Sunflower Bank in Denver.
• This is the first criminal case on sanctions evasion since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Context. The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions against Malofeev in 2014 due to support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. In April of this year, Washington expanded sanctions against the businessman, and also introduced restrictions against organizations associated with him and his son Kirill.

• At the end of April, US President Joe Biden proposed a bill allowing the confiscation of the property of Russians on the sanctions lists, and the proceeds from the sale of this property to be sent to Ukraine.