20 years in prison for former Cypriot oligarch Oleg Deripaska

Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who received a Cypriot passport in 2018 and had his Cypriot citizenship revoked in April 2022, faces a charge of conspiracy to violate and evade US sanctions with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

According to a Financial Times article, the US authorities have accused Russian metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska and some of his associates of violating sanctions imposed by Washington. The US Justice Department unsealed an indictment on Thursday, September 29, charging Deripaska and two associates - US citizen Olga Shriki and Russian Natalia Mikhaylovna Bardakova - with conspiracy to violate US sanctions imposed on the oligarch and his private investment firm Basic Element.

Notably, Deripaska and 23 other Russian oligarchs and government officials in April 2018 faced the toughest measures imposed by the US in response to Russia's invasion of Crimea, Ukraine in 2014 and alleged meddling in the 2016 US election. According to the FT report, US authorities allege that after the 2018 sanctions, Deripaska illegally used the country's financial system to maintain three luxury properties in the country.

In April 2022, sanctions were imposed by Brussels on Oleg Deripaska, who held a Cypriot passport obtained in March 2018 through the now well-known Cyprus investment program. The Cyprus Council of Ministers in April initiated procedures to revoke the Cypriot citizenship of Oleg Deripaska and his dependants.

Under the US sanctions on Russian oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska had been under the microscope early on, specifically since 2018. Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska was allegedly linked to former Trump associate Paul Manafort and had tried more than once to obtain a Cypriot passport.

[This article was translated from its Greek original]