New York District Court Grants US Warrant to Seize 2 Planes Owned by Roman Abramovich

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted the U.S. a warrant to seize a Boeing 787-8 aircraft and Gulfstream G650ER aircraft owned by sanctioned Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, DOJ announced June 6. The district court said the airplanes are subject to seizure and forfeiture based on probable cause of violating the Export Control Reform Act and recent Russia sanctions imposed following the country's invasion of Ukraine (see 2206060038).

The grounds for the seizure come from the planes' travel to Russia without the required license from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security. The sanctions on Russia include bans on the export, reexport or in-country transfer of U.S.-made aircraft to or within Russia without such a license. Both jets were reexported to Russia in violation of the sanctions with both aircraft being flown to Russia in March, DOJ said. The Boeing aircraft sits in the United Arab Emirates while the Gulfstream is in Russia.

The announcement of the warrant was made by Andrew Adams, director of Task Force KleptoCapture; Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York; Michael Driscoll, special agent in charge of the FBI's New York field office; and Matthew Axelrod, Commerce Department assistant secretary for export enforcement.