DOJ charges Russian oligarch with violating US sanctions

The Department of Justice on Wednesday charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with violating U.S. sanctions while seizing millions of dollars in related funds.

It also announced law enforcement actions against a Russian intelligence unit tasked with creating a botnet designed to disrupt thousands of devices used by small businesses.

The charges against Malofeyev stem from sanctions put in place after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, a sign of the time commitment involved in building such cases against elites with carefully concealed and deliberately complex financial holdings.

“It does not matter how far you sail your yacht. It does not matter how well you conceal your assets. It does not matter how cleverly you write your malware, or hide your online activity. The Justice Department will use every available tool to find you, disrupt your plots and hold you accountable,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference Wednesday.

The oligarch remains at large and the DOJ said Wednesday they believe he is currently in Russia.

Federal prosecutors last month also charged John Hanick, a U.S. citizen, with helping Malofeyev evade the 2014 sanctions.

According to the Malofeyev indictment unsealed Wednesday, Hanick, a former Fox News director, helped the Russian oligarch in operating media networks abroad and making investments in the U.S. 

The Treasury Department in 2014 called Malofeyev “one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea” and that his efforts helped to undermine Ukraine’s stability and sovereignty.

The case against Malofeyev is coupled with a seizure warrant for a $10 million investment in a Texas bank holding company through a shell company that was later transferred to someone identified in the documents as a Greek associate of Malofeyev.

DOJ also announced its disruption of a plot by the GRU, the Russian government’s military intelligence agency, to hack a network security company’s devices, going after a “botnet” designed to overtake them.

“We’re announcing a sophisticated court authorized operation disrupting a botnet of thousands of devices controlled by the Russian government before it could do any harm,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.

“We removed malware from devices used by thousands of mostly small businesses for network security all over the world and then we shut the door the Russians had used to get into them.”