The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it had charged a Russian oligarch with sanctions violations and that officials have dismantled a cybercrime operation controlled by a Russian military intelligence agency.
The case against against Konstantin Malofeyev accuses him of trying to evade earlier Treasury Department sanctions by seeking to secretly acquire media organizations across Europe. Officials also seized millions of dollars they say are traceable to the sanctions violations.
The announcement comes two days after U.S. officials seized a yacht in Spain belonging to a Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Justice Department in the last year has taken aim against Russia-based cybercrime, recovering in June most of a multimillion-dollar ransom that Colonial Pipeline paid to hackers after a ransomware attack that halted operations and announcing charges last fall against two suspected ransomware operators.
Meanwhile, the United States has announced sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters and says it’s toughening penalties against Russian banks in retaliation for “war crimes” in Ukraine.
The moves against Sberbank and Alfa Bank prohibit assets from touching the U.S financial system and bar Americans from doing business with those institutions.
In addition to sanctions aimed at Putin’s adult daughters, Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova, the U.S. is targeting Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and the wife and children of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)
You can also watch footage of the yacht seizure, which the @TheJusticeDept released earlier today, at https://t.co/8QCPaEzpB1.
— FBI (@FBI) April 4, 2022
