UK sanction - x2 Cypriots oligarch enablers [a lawyer and TCSP director] along with oligarch family members and Alisher Usmanov financial network

New sanctions announced target those who have knowingly assisted sanctioned Russia oligarchs to hide their assets in complex financial networks.

New sanctions announced by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly today (Wednesday 12 April) target those who have knowingly assisted sanctioned Russia oligarchs to hide their assets in complex financial networks.

Among those sanctioned are 2 Cypriot professional enablers supporting major Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov.

• Demetris Ioannides and Christodoulos Vassiliades,
• Chairman and Managing Partner at Meritservus   - https://meritservus.com/people/directors/
• Ioannides is responsible for crafting the murky offshore structures which Abramovich used to hide over £760 million assets ahead of being sanctioned following Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
• Christodoulos G. Vassiliades is the founder and Managing Director of Christodoulos G. Vassiliades & Co LLC [a law firm]., https://www.vasslaw.com/people/christodoulos-g-vassiliades/
• Is at the centre of a web of trusts and offshore companies that link Usmanov and Sutton Place Estate.

The UK has also targeted Alisher Usmanov financial network, including companies.

• USM, 
• Curzon Square Limited, and
• Hanley Limited.

Sanctioning these companies ensures that assets associated with Usmanov – including.

• The £90 million Beechwood House mansion in London – remain sanctioned. 
• Curzon Square Limited, the outfit that acted as Usmanov’s London office and as leaseholder of a Grade II mansion on Curzon Square, is also subject to an asset freeze. 

Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov

• Is an Uzbek–Russian businessman and oligarch. By 2022, Usmanov had an estimated net worth of $19.5 billion and was among the world's 100 wealthiest people.

• (Uzbek: Alisher Usmonov, Russian: Алишер Бурханович Усманов; born 9 September 1953)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alisher_Usmanov

Vladimir and Varvara Skoch have also been sanctioned.

• Vladimir and Varvara Skoch are the father and daughter of Usmanov’s business partner and ”richest man in the Duma” Andrei Skoch
• Andrei Vladimirovich Skoch (Russian: Андрей Владимирович Скоч, born 30 January 1966) is a Russian billionaire businessman, part owner of the steelmaker Lebedinsky Mining [ru].
• According to the U.S. Forbes Magazine, Skoch is among the richest Russians and was listed in The World's Billionaires in 2012.
• Skoch is a member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation since 1999.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Skoch

Today’s package hits a number of family members of other oligarchs, who are used as proxies to hide their assets.

This includes:

• Tatiana Evtushenkova,

• The acting director of firm Redline Capital which is owned by her father, Vladimir Evtushenkov

• Natalia Evtushenkov, 

• wife of Vladimir Evtushenkov who holds board positions in banks and other companies in which her husband owns stakes including MTS Bank.
• She is also on the board of directors for Telecomms company Instacom International, which is owned by her husband

• Felix Evtushenkov,

• Whose father Vladimir transferred 10% of shares in Russian conglomerate Sistema to Felix at the time of his own designation, bringing Vladimir’s stake to below 50%

• Gulnara Kerimova, 

• who holds four luxury villas in France on behalf of her father Suleyman Kerimov

• Nariman Gadzhiev, 

• Who acts as the beneficiary owner of a series of shell companies connected to Kerimov. 
• A company linked to Gadzhiev was found to be transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to companies linked to his uncle Kerimov

• Oksana Marchenko, 

• The wife of key Putin ally Victor Medvedchuk, and owner of multiple luxury properties in Crimea

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said:

• We are closing the net on the Russian elite and those who try to help them hide their money for war.
• There’s no place to hide. We will keep cutting them off from assets they thought were successfully hidden.
• Together with our international partners the UK will continue to crack down on those who are supporting the war.

We won’t stop until Putin does.

Today’s package comes as part of the UK’s crackdown on all forms of evasion and circumvention - including an additional £50 million announced as part of the new Economic Deterrence Initiative to support sanctions enforcement and continued work with international partners.

The Home Secretary also recently announced the expansion of the National Crime Agency’s Combating Kleptocracy Cell to target corrupt elites and their enablers.

• https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-plan-puts-uk-at-the-forefront-of-fight-against-economic-crime

The UK, alongside international partners, is also continuing to strengthen the unprecedented sanctions imposed to constrain Russia’s capacity to wage its illegal war – including through the new enforcement co-ordination mechanism to bolster the compliance and enforcement of our measures.

By implementing these measures, the UK is ensuring – consistent with its legal systems – that Putin and those who continue to support his war have no access to any of these assets until they end their violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Source

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sanctions-abramovich-and-usmanovs-financial-fixers-in-crackdown-on-oligarch-enablers?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications-topic&utm_source=db5a759a-1de1-4b2d-935b-39b6c429264c&utm_content=immediately