U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 12, 2022. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) started an effort on Wednesday to enforce the wide-ranging new sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia in response to its full-fledged invasion of Ukraine.
The DOJ started a task force called KleptoCapture, run out of Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco's office, to prosecute those who violate or seek to outmaneuver sanctions imposed on Russian financial institutions or restrictions placed on technology imports to Russia.
"The Justice Department will use all of its authorities to seize the assets of individuals and entities who violate these sanctions," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue this unjust war."
The task force will also seek to seize assets belonging to individuals with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who have been sanctioned by the U.S. government or tied to illicit conduct, according to DOJ officials. The department may pursue asset forfeiture, including of personal real estate and financial and commercial assets, even when defendants cannot be immediately arrested. Wealthy Russians closely connected to Putin's government have come under enormous scrutiny following the invasion.
President Joe Biden previewed the effort in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, when he announced that the DOJ would start a "dedicated task force to go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs."
"To those bolstering the Russian regime through corruption and sanctions evasion: We will deprive you of safe haven and hold you accountable," Monaco said in a statement. "Oligarchs be warned: We will use every tool to freeze and seize your criminal proceeds."
The group will also target "efforts to use cryptocurrency to evade U.S. sanctions, launder proceeds of foreign corruption, or evade U.S. responses to Russian military aggression." This may involve prosecution of those who try to evade anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) policies.
Without a direct U.S. military response, the United States and much of the world have settled on economic sanctions to punish the Russian government for its assault on neighboring Ukraine by cratering its economy and severing many of its ties to the global economy.
The United States and Europe have imposed a raft of sanctions across Russia, including sanctioning the country's largest banks, removing some of its banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system that undergirds much of the global economy, targeting the wealth of oligarchs, and restricting the export of certain technologies to Russia.
The task force will feature prosecutors, analysts, and agents who specialize in sanctions and export control enforcement, anti-corruption, asset forfeiture, AML, tax enforcement, national security investigations, and foreign evidence collection, according to a DOJ statement. The national security and criminal divisions will take the lead, with assists from the tax and civil divisions as well as various U.S. attorney's offices.
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