The Justice Department’s “Operation KleptoCapture” is seeking to seize luxury real-estate in the Hamptons, New York City and Miami Beach valued at $75 million and belonging to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, court documents show.
NBC News was the first to report the raid of Vekselberg’s properties in September of last year. Those raids by the Justice Department and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in part led to Friday's seizure filings.
Prosecutors allege that Vekselberg’s previously indicted business associate Vladimir Voronchenko violated sanctions and was involved in international money laundering. Specifically, after Vekselberg was sanctioned in 2018, Voronchenko tried to sell the Park Avenue and Southampton property without obtaining proper U.S. approval in violation of sanctions laws.
Voronchenko was served with a grand jury subpoena in May of last year on Fisher Island and according to prosecutors he took a flight from Miami to Dubai and ultimately Moscow on May 22 – just 9 days after receiving the subpoena. He remains a fugitive to this day, prosecutors say.
Vekselberg is well known to U.S. law enforcement and the U.S. political scene.
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The U.S. seizure of Vekselberg's $90 million superyacht in Tango, off the Spanish coast, in early April marked the first under newly western imposed sanctions targeting pricey assets of Russian elites in response to the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. (More seizures here.)
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A U.S. official with expertise in oligarchs says Vekselberg had an established model for seeking influence — identify areas of potential investment, provide funds to his proxies, and then let those proxies find “avenues” to move money to get the deals done — which could mean contributions or payments to individuals as needed.
A company controlled by Vekselberg made $500,000 in payments made to former Trump attorney and convicted felon Michael Cohen. The payments were first disclosed by Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti and came from a company called Columbus Nova, based in the U.S. and run by Vekselberg’s cousin Andrew Intrater. The payments went to Cohen’s company “Essential Consultants” which was the same company that Cohen used to wire Daniels $130,000.
In 2018, Andrey Shtorkh, a spokesman for Vekselberg, told NBC News that neither Vekselberg nor Renova “has ever had any contractual relationship with Mr. Cohen or Essential Consultants.”
“As to a relationship between Columbus Nova and Mr. Cohen you have to ask Mr. Andy Intrater, because Columbus Nova is a company owned and managed by him.”
More recently Intrater’s contributions to George Santos’ campaign have come under scrutiny. Including $23,700 in publicly listed FEC campaign donations in 2022to Santos’ campaign or related PACs. In 2021 he donated $5,800 to Santos’ campaign as well.
Recent calls to Intrater have not been returned.
