NEW YORK, United States: British businessman Graham Bonham-Carter was arrested on US charges of conspiring to violate sanctions placed on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Bonham-Carter was arrested in the United Kingdom, and federal prosecutors in Manhattan said they will seek his extradition.
Prosecutors said Bonham-Carter made payments for US properties owned by Deripaska and tried to move the aluminum magnate’s artwork in the United States overseas.
A lawyer for Bonham-Carter, who is also charged with wire fraud, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Britain’s National Crime Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The charges come as the US Department of Justice tries to pressure Russian oligarchs through sanctions, asset seizures and criminal probes to stop backing Russian President Vladimir Putin after the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow calls its activities in Ukraine a “special military operation.”
“Bonham-Carter obscured the origin of funding for upkeep and management of Deripaska’s lavish US assets, in violation of the international sanctions,” Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said in a statement.
Deripaska, the billionaire 54-year-old founder of aluminum giant Rusal, was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and government officials blacklisted by Washington in 2018 in connection with Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US election.
The Justice Department last month charged Deripaska with violating sanctions by using the US financial system to maintain three luxury properties, employing a woman to buy a California music studio on his behalf, and by trying to have his girlfriend travel to the United States to bear his children.
Prosecutors said Bonham-Carter has worked for entities controlled by Deripaska since around 2003, and managed his residential properties in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Prosecutors said that in 2021, Bonham-Carter wired just over $1 million from a Russian bank account for a company he controlled on Deripaska’s behalf to a New York bank account for Gracetown, Inc., which manages Deripaska’s residential properties in the United States.
The payments were meant to pay for the maintenance of Deripaska’s two residential properties in New York and one in Washington, D.C., which he purchased between 2005 and 2008, prosecutors said.
Bonham-Carter also sought in 2021 to transfer artwork Deripaska bought from an auction house in New York City to London, and falsely told the auction house that the art did not belong to Deripaska, prosecutors said.
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British businessman charged over helping Russian oligarch evade US sanctions
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British businessman charged over helping Russian oligarch evade US sanctions
- Prosecutors said Bonham-Carter made payments for US properties owned by Deripaska
- A lawyer for Bonham-Carter, who is also charged with wire fraud, did not immediately respond to a request for comment
Taiwan says Chinese drone made ‘provocative’ flight over South China Sea island
TAIPEI: A Chinese reconnaissance drone briefly flew over the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands at the top end of the South China Sea on Saturday, in what Taiwan’s defense ministry called a “provocative and irresponsible” move.
Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, reports Chinese military activity around it on an almost daily basis, including drones though they very rarely enter Taiwanese airspace.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said the Chinese reconnaissance drone was detected around dawn on Saturday approaching the Pratas Islands and flew in its airspace for eight minutes at an altitude outside the range of anti-aircraft weapons.
“After our side broadcast warnings on international channels, it departed at 0548,” it said in a statement.
“Such highly provocative and irresponsible actions by the People’s Liberation Army seriously undermine regional peace and stability, violated international legal norms, and will inevitably be condemned,” it added.
Taiwan’s armed forces will continue to maintain strict vigilance and monitoring, and will respond in accordance with the routine combat readiness rules, the ministry said.
Calls to China’s defense ministry outside of office hours on a weekend went unanswered.
In 2022, Taiwan’s military for the first time shot down an unidentified civilian drone that entered its airspace near an islet off the Chinese coast controlled by Taiwan.
Lying roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than 400 km (250 miles) — from mainland Taiwan.
The Pratas, an atoll which is also a Taiwanese national park, are only lightly defended by Taiwan’s military, but lie at a highly strategic location at the top end of the disputed South China Sea.
China also views the Pratas as its own territory.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, reports Chinese military activity around it on an almost daily basis, including drones though they very rarely enter Taiwanese airspace.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said the Chinese reconnaissance drone was detected around dawn on Saturday approaching the Pratas Islands and flew in its airspace for eight minutes at an altitude outside the range of anti-aircraft weapons.
“After our side broadcast warnings on international channels, it departed at 0548,” it said in a statement.
“Such highly provocative and irresponsible actions by the People’s Liberation Army seriously undermine regional peace and stability, violated international legal norms, and will inevitably be condemned,” it added.
Taiwan’s armed forces will continue to maintain strict vigilance and monitoring, and will respond in accordance with the routine combat readiness rules, the ministry said.
Calls to China’s defense ministry outside of office hours on a weekend went unanswered.
In 2022, Taiwan’s military for the first time shot down an unidentified civilian drone that entered its airspace near an islet off the Chinese coast controlled by Taiwan.
Lying roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than 400 km (250 miles) — from mainland Taiwan.
The Pratas, an atoll which is also a Taiwanese national park, are only lightly defended by Taiwan’s military, but lie at a highly strategic location at the top end of the disputed South China Sea.
China also views the Pratas as its own territory.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
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