The United States has withheld $1 billion in assets held by Suleiman Kerimov, one of the Russian oligarchs sanctioned by Western governments.has in this country through a fund located in the state of Delaware, as announced on Friday by the Treasury Department.
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The US authorities decided to block the funds after discovering that Kerimov, one of the businessmen sanctioned for his links with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine, participates in the Heritage Trust, created in July
2017 for the purpose of managing the oligarch’s assets in the United States.
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The Treasury Department added in a statement that Kerimov used a complex web of legal structures and front men to conceal his involvement in the Heritage Trust.whose funds reached the United States before the imposition of sanctions.
Heritage Trust funds were invested in major US companies and managed by US firms.
Last April, the British television channel BBC revealed that Kerimov used
a figurehead to hide some 300 million dollars.
The information was included in the so-called Pandora Papers, confidential documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ, in English).
The documents also reveal that between 2010 and 2015, the US authorities considered several transfers linked to Kerimov and his associates worth 700 million dollars, although they did not prove that they were linked to the oligarch.
In addition, in May, the Fiji High Court, at the request of the US, seized a yacht held in the port of Lautoka that is allegedly owned by the Russian businessman.
Kerimov has been on the Treasury Department’s sanctions list since 2018.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE
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