US Attorney General permits transfer of confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine for first time

On Wednesday 10 May, US Attorney General Merrick Garland authorised the first transfer of confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine for reconstruction purposes.

Source: a statement by Garland quoted by Reuters, reported by European Pravda

Details: The funds in question were confiscated by a US court from Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, who was charged with evading sanctions. They can be transferred to Ukraine in accordance with a budget amendment adopted in December 2022.

Quote: "While this represents the United States’ first transfer of forfeited Russian funds for the rebuilding of Ukraine, it will not be the last," Garland said in the statement. 

In February 2023, the District Judge of the Manhattan Federal Court authorised the prosecutor's office to confiscate US$5.4 million belonging to Malofeyev.

Malofeyev, who owns Tsargrad TV, has been accused of financing separatism in Crimea and was sanctioned by the United States in 2014. Eight years later, US prosecutors accused him of evading sanctions.

At the end of 2022, prosecutors told the court that they had the right to confiscate the money in Malofeyev's account at Sunflower Bank in Denver because he had attempted to transfer it to a business partner in defiance of US sanctions.

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