Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/ WASHINGTON: The United States (US) on Friday charged two businessmen, one Russian and one British, with allegedly facilitating the sanctions evasion and the money laundering scheme about a 90 million dollars yacht of Russian oligarch billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.
US charged Two foreign person
Vladislav Osipov, a Russian national, and Richard Masters, a UK national, were indicted in a United States court on Friday with conspiracy to defraud the UN and to commit offences against the US.
The US Justice Department said that the US requested Spain to arrest Masters for extradition, adding that his arrest was executed on Friday, and an arrested warrant against Osipov was outstanding. Reuters did not reach representatives of Osipov and Masters for comment. Washington has imposed sanctions.
On Vekselberg in 2018 over alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 United States election, and in 2022 over his relations with Vladimir Putin, Russian President after Russia’s armed forces invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has denied interfering in the US election and calls its actions in Ukraine a “special army operation.”
The indictment alleges that Richard Masters ran a yacht management company in Spain, which took over the management of Tango after Vekselberg was sanctioned in 2018 and conspired with others to evade the United States sanctions.
