OFAC Designates Russian National for Scheme to Unfreeze Oligarch's Assets

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated Russian national Dmitrii Aleksandrovich Beloglazovand and three of his companies for their involvement in a scheme to help Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska evade U.S. sanctions. OFAC said the scheme was meant to unfreeze more than $1.5 billion worth of shares belonging to Deripaska.

Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said any companies doing business with Russia “should be skeptical of supposed divestment schemes that involve shell companies or proxies linked to sanctioned oligarchs. Corporate sales and acquisitions can be abused for money laundering and sanctions evasion.”

OFAC said Deripaska in June 2023 coordinated with Beloglazov on a transaction to sell Deripaska’s frozen shares in a European company. The agency also sanctioned Russian financial services firm Obshchestvo S Ogranichennoi Otvetstvennostiu Titul, owned by Beloglazov, along with Russian financial services firm Aktsionernoe Obshchestvo Iliadis, a subsidiary of Titul. OFAC also sanctioned Russian investment holding company International Company Joint Stock Company Rasperia Trading Limited, which Iliadis acquired in early 2024 and that holds Deripaska’s frozen shares.

Treasury said this scheme aligns with “typologies” that were highlighted in an advisory on Russian sanctions evasion that the U.S., the EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. issued last year. That guidance noted that “sanctioned Russian individuals leverage complex ownership structures to disguise their connections to particular assets or entities and use enablers to aid evasion efforts,” the agency said.