A Russian individual and three Russian companies were involved in an attempted sanctions evasion scheme to unfreeze more than $1.5 billion worth of shares belonging to oligarch Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

The Office of Foreign Assets said Deripaska was acting on behalf of the Russian government while running an energy company. Deripaska, who has been sanctioned in numerous countries, was charged in 2022 with conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Treasury Department said.

Last June, Deripaska coordinated with Dmitrii Beloglazov, the owner of a Russian financial firm on a transaction to sell Deripaska's shares to a European company, the Treasury Department said.

A Russian financial services firm was established as a subsidiary of Beloglazov's firm soon after the coordination begin, and then acquired another Russian-based holding company, which held Deripaska's frozen shares, the Treasury Department said.

"Treasury will continue to take action to protect the integrity of our multilateral sanctions regime and stop evasion by the Kremlin and its oligarch enablers," said the undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson. "Anyone still doing business in or with Russia should be skeptical of supposed divestment schemes that involve shell companies or proxies linked to sanctioned oligarchs. Corporate sales and acquisitions can be abused for money laundering and sanctions evasion."

The three companies and Beloglazov were officially sanctioned and any property or interests in property they have in the United States is blocked and must be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets, the Treasury Department said.

Any entities they own at least 50% or more of are also blocked. Americans are also prohibited from doing business with them unless authorized by the Office of Foreign Assets, the Treasury Department said.

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