US Attorney General Merrick Garland has ordered that the funds seized from Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev be used for Ukraine’s needs. It has been reported Reuters.
February 3 Southern District of New York decided Allowing the seizure of $5.4 million from the account of Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev at Sunflower Bank.
The court decision was the first to confiscate a Russian citizen’s funds after their US account was blocked on the basis of sanctions. In late 2022, US President Joe Biden signed a law allowing the Department of Justice to transfer some of the seized assets to the US State Department and then send it to Ukraine as aid.
The head of the Justice Department task force, Andrew Adams, told Reuters in January that the funds first confiscated could soon be transferred to Kiev.
Sanctions against Malofeev were imposed by the United States in 2014 and last year he was accused of violating sanctions. The US Department of Justice alleges that Malofeev “violated the sanctions imposed on him by continuing to regulate the work of media with a pro-Kremlin orientation in Europe.”
The Russian businessman is chairman of the board of directors of the Tsargrad Group of Companies and a shareholder of the Tsargrad TV channel.