US Looking to Uncover Hidden Russian Assets

Federal authorities are hoping to unearth hidden assets held by Russian oligarchs in the United States, such as real estate, trust funds, and bank accounts, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Prosecutors have issued multiple subpoenas targeting records from banks, businesses, and trusts that could shed light on otherwise unknown Russian holdings.

This comes after the Biden administration officials ordered a freeze on roughly $330 billion in Russian assets, a move that led to difficulties in identifying hidden assets. The administration has also called on Congress to pass legislation that would allow it to redistribute confiscated funds to Ukraine.

"We have no dedicated mechanism to transfer the proceeds of seized oligarch assets to the Ukrainian people," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a hearing last September.

Andrew Adams, the director of the KleptoCapture Task Force in the Department of Justice, said at the September hearing that just identifying assets could take multiple years.

"The difficulties of conducting transnational investigations, of piercing often opaque jurisdictions that have an interest in concealing, or providing a harbor for those who would conceal illegal activity, is a tall order," he said.