FBI raids US properties of sanctioned Russian oligarch

FBI agents have raided luxury properties linked to a Russian oligarch who is a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

FBI agents outside the home of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Washington. Picture: AFP

FBI agents have raided luxury properties in Washington and New York linked to a Russian oligarch who is a close ally of Vladimir Putin and who featured prominently in investigations of Trump campaign officials.

An FBI spokesman said agents had carried out “court-authorised law enforcement activity” at a home connected to Oleg Deripaska in an upmarket suburb of the US capital.

The New York Times reported that the FBI had also raided a home in New York’s Greenwich Village that is linked to Mr Deripaska, a billionaire metals tycoon.

The newspaper said the raids were carried out as part of an investigation into whether Mr Deripaska had violated sanctions imposed on him by the US in 2018.

Announcing the sanctions, the Treasury Department said Mr Deripaska was being investigated for money laundering, extortion and racketeering.

“There are also allegations that Deripaska bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman, and had links to a Russian organised crime group,” the Treasury Department said.

Mr Deripaska filed a lawsuit in March 2019 against the Treasury Department, accusing it of illegally targeting him, but the suit was tossed out this year by a federal judge.

The suit claimed that Mr Deripaska’s net worth had dropped by $US7.5bn after the sanctions were imposed on him and six other Russian oligarchs by the Trump administration in April 2018.

Shares of his Rusal metals group plunged and to keep his companies in business Mr Deripaska was forced to transfer his shares to others, it said.

The Russian billionaire also reportedly had close ties to Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, and his name surfaced during the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian election meddling.

During the 2016 campaign, according to court filings, Manafort offered Mr Deripaska briefings and polling data on the presidential race, making the offer through Manafort’s former business partner and suspected Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik.

Manafort was sentenced to 7½ years in prison for financial and other crimes but was pardoned by Mr Trump before he left the White House.

AFP