A businessman from Britain has been detained and might be extradited to the US on charges of breaking sanctions on the Russian magnate Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska.
According to US prosecutors, Graham Bonham-Carter attempted to transport artwork worth $12,146 USD offshore and made payments for Deripaska’s local properties.
In response to the invasion of Ukraine, the US Department of Justice has placed sanctions on Russian billionaires it claims have ties to the Kremlin.
Some penalties, including those imposed on Deripaska, were put in place as of 2018 in response to Russia’s suspected interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The 62-year-old Bonham-Carter was detained on Tuesday and is suspected of helping Deripaska manage his American real estate in 2021, years after these restrictions were put in place.
According to the accusations made by the prosecution, Bonham-Carter sent slightly over $1 million (£910,000) from a Russian bank account to a New York bank account that was in charge of managing the oligarch’s personal properties in the country.
He is also charged with trying to ship a piece of art to London that Deripaska bought from a New York auction house.
It’s claimed that Bonham-Carter, who is Helena Bonham Carter’s second cousin, misled the auction company by saying the piece of art didn’t belong to Deripaska.
In accordance with court records, Bonham-Carter has managed Deripaska’s properties in the UK and Europe since 2003 while working for businesses under his ownership.
‘Bonham-Carter disguised the source of money for care and administration of Deripaska’s opulent US properties, in violation of the international sanctions,’ said Damian Williams, the chief US prosecutor in Manhattan.
According to court records, Bonham-Carter still referred to Deripaska as his “boss” on October 13, 2021.
He said in an email that everything was OK with the exception of the fact that banks were blocking him due to his connection to his employer, Oleg Deripaska.
I’ve even been told not to go to the USA, where Oleg is still under personal sanctions, since I’ll be taken aside by the authorities and interrogated for hours or days.
Deripaska, 54, is one of a group of businesspeople known as oligarchs that dominate significant portions of the Russian economy, particularly in the energy and commodities sectors, and who have been able to maintain their wealth by avoiding politics.
Following an extradition request from the US, Bonham-Carter was summoned to appear before a court in London and was given conditional release.
He is accused of breaching the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), plotting to break US sanctions, and wire fraud, among other offenses.
The maximum punishment for each crime is 20 years in jail.
The matter is being looked into by the Counterintelligence Division and FBI New York Field Office.
A Bonham-Carter defense attorney is also accused with wire fraud.