Orthodox Oligarch Konstantin Malofeev Has Confiscated Assets Turned Over to Ukraine
A true Christian warrior and hero punished by the Satanic West.
A new precedent has been set. Money stolen from Russia will now be used against Russia in Ukraine.
And why was so much money stolen from Russia’s various oligarchs and companies? Well, because no one was told beforehand to consider securing their funds. The SMO was successfully launched without anyone in Russia knowing about it beforehand. Or in Kiev for that matter. The Americans knew and were warning about it in the lead-up to the war in February and January of last year. These claims were dismissed by bloggers such as “B” of Moon of Alabama and the other big name alt-pundits at the time because the source was US intelligence. But, as it turns out, spying is one of the things that the US is still quite good at. And the implication of the advance warning that the US had of the invasion was that they had penetrated Russia’s inner circle.
Consider the interesting detail that some of Russia’s oligarchs did know that the SMO was coming.
Trusts holding billions of dollars of assets for Roman Abramovich were amended to transfer beneficial ownership to his children shortly before sanctions were imposed on the Russian oligarch.
Leaked files seen by the Guardian suggest 10 secretive offshore trusts established to benefit Abramovich were rapidly reorganised in early February 2022, three weeks before the start of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The sweeping reorganisation of Abramovich’s financial affairs commenced just days after governments threatened to impose sanctions against Russian oligarchs in the event of an invasion.
The leaked documents raise questions about whether the changes to trusts were made in an attempt to shield the oligarch’s vast fortune from the threat of asset freezes.
Analysis suggests the amendments made Abramovich’s seven children, the youngest of whom is nine years old, beneficiaries of trusts holding assets worth at least $4bn, though the total value could be much higher.
Other Russian “insiders” were not so lucky and had their assets stuck in the West, which then got frozen. One of the victims was Konstantin Malofeev, who had lots of business in Ukraine and, apparently, in the US.
U.S. prosecutors may confiscate $5.4 million belonging to sanctioned Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev, a judge ruled on Thursday, paving the way for the funds to potentially be used to help rebuild war-ravaged Ukraine.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan federal court marked the first forfeiture order for a Russian oligarch's assets since the Department of Justice in 2022 launched a task force aimed at squeezing the finances of Russian President Vladimir Putin's allies in response to the Ukraine invasion.
U.S. President Joe Biden in late 2022 signed a law allowing the DOJ to transfer some forfeited assets to the State Department to aid Ukraine. U.S. law limits how the government may use forfeited assets.
U.S. authorities have accused Malofeyev, the owner of Christian Orthodox television channel Tsargrad TV, of financing separatists in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Malofeyev, who has denied financing separatists, was sanctioned by Washington in 2014 and charged with sanctions violations in 2022. He could not be reached for comment and is believed to be at large in Russia.
Andrew Adams, head of the DOJ's KleptoCapture task force, said last month that the first forfeited funds could be transferred to Ukraine shortly.
"These amounts are miniscule compared to the cost of the catastrophe inflicted by Russia on the people and the land of Ukraine, but the contribution is important," Adams said in a speech to the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank.
Moscow calls its activities in Ukraine a "special military operation."
Prosecutors said in court papers late last year they were entitled to the money in Malofeyev's account at Denver-based Sunflower Bank because he sought to transfer it to a business partner in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Since Malofeyev did not contest the forfeiture request, prosecutors said on Thursday the funds should be forfeited by default.
The KleptoCapture task force has temporarily seized other oligarchs' assets, including a $300 million yacht, but has not yet won orders to permanently forfeit them.
There’s a lot of good and bad that can be said about Malofeev.