UK businessman charged with serving to Oleg Deripaska evade sanctions

A British businessman who labored for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has been arrested in London after being charged by US authorities for allegedly aiding his boss in evading sanctions.

The US legal professional for the southern district of New York mentioned Graham Bonham-Carter, 62, helped Deripaska service properties within the US and tried to maneuver invaluable paintings from New York to London, although the tycoon was topic to harsh sanctions imposed by the US Treasury in 2018 after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

“Bonham-Carter obscured the origin of funding for maintenance and administration of Deripaska’s lavish US property, in violation of the worldwide sanctions,” Manhattan legal professional Damian Williams mentioned in an announcement.

Britain’s Nationwide Crime Company mentioned it had secured Bonham-Carter’s arrest following an extradition request from the US. The businessman appeared earlier than Westminster Magistrates Courtroom earlier than being launched on bail.

In an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, US authorities alleged that Bonham-Carter labored for Deripaska for nearly 20 years, and managed the oligarch’s properties within the UK and Europe, together with a home in London’s Belgravia Sq..

They mentioned he wired funds totalling over $1mn from financial institution accounts in Russia to the US, to pay for workers and maintenance at Deripaska’s homes, and tried to maneuver artwork bought by Deripaska from an public sale home in New York to London, by disguising its proprietor.

Deripaska is amongst a bunch of Russian oligarchs and authorities officers who’ve confronted the toughest measures imposed on people by the US in response to the invasion of Crimea. He was charged by US prosecutors final month with violating sanctions by allegedly maintaining three luxurious properties within the nation.

His property embody Russian automotive factories and agricultural producers, in addition to vitality and aluminium corporations EN+ and Rusal.

Earlier this yr, Britain’s Nationwide Crime Company additionally froze financial institution accounts in Graham Bonham-Carter’s title, citing “affordable grounds to suspect the cash within the accounts . . . was derived from the laundering of funds belonging to Deripaska”.

The NCA had beforehand ensured {that a} mansion in Belgrave Sq. belonging to Deripaska, and a personal workplace in Cleveland Row — estimated to be collectively value greater than £50mn — had been frozen below UK sanctions.

“Oligarchs in search of to evade sanctions depend on expert professionals to assist them cover their true possession of property and maintain their existence,” mentioned Steve Rodhouse, a director-general on the NCA. “This criminality exploits world monetary flows and hubs together with the UK, and requires a collaborative worldwide response.”

US prosecutors mentioned that they had discovered proof that Bonham-Carter was working straight for Deripaska as soon as sanctions had been in impact.

In a single electronic mail obtained by prosecutors from June 2018, three months after the administration of Donald Trump introduced measures towards Deripaska, Bonham-Carter wrote: “Instances a bit powerful for my boss as sanctions have hit him from the USA so not a great time.”

In one other electronic mail from October 2021, he wrote: “It[’]s all good aside from banks hold shutting me down due to my affiliation to my boss Oleg Deripaska . . . I’ve even been suggested to not go to the USA the place Oleg nonetheless has private sanctions because the authorities will undoubtedly pull me to 1 facet and the questioning may very well be hours and even days!!”

Extra reporting by Kate Beioley in London