The Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has been subject to US sanctions since 2018 because of his proximity to the Kremlin. Nevertheless, his girlfriend gives birth to their first child together in the USA in 2020 – as a result, it receives the coveted US citizenship. With the second child, the matter flies up. Now the billionaire and the mother of his children have been charged in the United States.
The US judiciary has indicted the Russian oligarch and confidante of President Vladimir Putin, Oleg Deripaska, for violating US sanctions. According to the US Department of Justice, the 52-year-old aluminum billionaire is accused of trying to get his two children US citizenship by circumventing the sanctions. The indictment is also directed against his girlfriend and two helpers.
According to the indictment, they had tried to allow Deripaska’s girlfriend Ekaterina Olegovna Voronina to enter the United States so that she could give birth to their children there. This was also successful in 2020. In 2022, however, the pregnant woman was denied entry.
The US authorities had already sanctioned Deripaska in 2018 because of his closeness to Putin. The oligarch tried to circumvent the sanctions “with lies and fraud,” said Lisa Monaco, number two at the Justice Department. Although he supports the Russian leadership, he has invested “hundreds of thousands of dollars” so that his child can get US citizenship, the ministry said.
“The hypocrisy of seeking comfort and citizenship in the United States while enjoying the fruits of a ruthless, anti-democratic regime is striking,” said Andrew C. Adams, chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s KleptoCaputure Task Force , With.
At a press conference in Moscow at the end of June, Deripaska described the Ukraine war as a “huge mistake”. The founder of the aluminum company Rusal used the term “war”, which the Russian leadership has forbidden.
