DOJ Seeks Proceeds From Sanctioned Oligarch's Sale of California Music Studio
DOJ filed a civil forfeiture complaint Dec. 2 in the U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York, seeking the proceeds from the sale of a California music studio that are allegedly beneficially owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The complaint alleges that the proceeds, totaling $3.4 million, "are the proceeds of sanctions violations."
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Deripaska was sanctioned in April 2018 for his role in the Russian energy sector, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York charged him and various associates with conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions in 2022 (see 2209290040). In that case, the U.S. alleged that Deripaska paid his associates to provide services for him to skirt the sanctions, including selling the music studio.
Deripaska bought the music studio in 2008 for over $3 million from Ocean Studios California, DOJ said. From around 2013 to 2018, the oligarch's associate Olga Shriki and cousin Pavel Ezubov, among others, "helped to operate and fund the music studio on behalf of Deripaska, and made clear that Deripaska was the ultimate decisionmaker with regard to the music studio," DOJ alleged.
DOJ said Shriki created a consulting business in 2018, called Global Consulting Services, through which she coordinated with Deripaska's associates to allegedly continue providing services to the oligarch. The consultancy's bank account received wires totaling over $500,000 from two entities linked with Deripaska, one of which entered into an agreement with an indicted co-conspirator to manage the oligarch's other properties abroad after his sanctions listing, DOJ said.
In 2019, Shriki carried out the sale of the contents of the music studio for over $500,000, then selling the studio itself later that year, the indictment said. The result was over $3 million in net proceeds, which were "deposited in the Ocean Studios account." Shriki then requested that an accounting firm transfer the proceeds to a Russian bank account "in the name of a company that funded the music studio’s accounts," DOJ said," or add Shriki as a signatory on the bank account so that Shriki could transfer the funds.
"The firm declined to effectuate the wire transfer itself," DOJ said. Around March 2021, DOJ said Wells Fargo blocked the Ocean Studios account and its funds "due to Ocean Studios account’s relationship with Deripaska."