A New York lawyer admitted in court that he illegally helped manage six luxury properties for sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg as the US continues to put pressure on those accused of helping wealthy Russians hide assets.
(Bloomberg) — A New York lawyer admitted in court that he illegally helped manage six luxury properties for sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg as the US continues to put pressure on those accused of helping wealthy Russians hide assets.
The lawyer, Robert Wise, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit international money laundering before US District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. Wise confessed that he facilitated $3.8 million in payments for taxes and insurance premiums on homes in New York and elsewhere for the benefit of Vekselberg.
Wise was hired to manage the properties by Viktor Voronchenko, a childhood friend of Vekselberg. Voronchenko was charged in February with participating in a scheme to make more than $4 million in payments to maintain four of the oligarch’s properties and attempting to sell two of them. The US later that month moved to seize six luxury properties in New York and Florida, valued at $75 million, tied to Vekselberg.
The properties targeted for seizure include 19 Duck Pond Lane, a nine-bedroom, 11-bathroom spread in Southampton, Long Island, and a 3,500-square-foot, four-bedroom Manhattan home at 515 Park Avenue last listed at $14.6 million.
Wise told the judge that he started doing real estate work for Voronchenko in 2005 or 2006 and began representing an entity named Medallion in 2008 that was beneficially owned by Vekselberg, making payments for bills including property taxes, maintenance and repair. He said he continued to make payments on behalf of the entity through 2022 after he learned that Vekselberg had been sanctioned in 2018, even after a change in the source of funding.
“I then ultimately made a conscious decision not to press the issue and failed to confirm what was very likely the case, namely that Vekselberg was still the beneficial owner of the properties,” Wise said. “I understand that by continuing to make these payments on these properties despite realizing the high probability that Vekselberg was the beneficial owner of the properties I was tacitly agreeing with others to use overseas funds to promote the violation of U.S. sanctions.”
The US Justice Department’s KleptoCapture task force is using a series of novel and secret tactics to identify and prosecute companies and individuals hiding the assets of wealthy Russians and helping to fuel the war in Ukraine. The head of the task force said it’s looking for new ways to limit evasion of sanctions by focusing on overseas investment advisers, hedge funds, law firms and private equity managers that have previously escaped scrutiny.
Earlier this month, the US and UK announced sanctions against key advisers of Russian billionaires Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov accused of disguising assets to avoid penalties tied to the invasion of Ukraine.
While Wise faced as long as five years in prison if convicted at trial, he agreed to federal guidelines that call for him to serve 46 to 57 months behind bars. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 6.
The case is US v Voronchenko, 23-cr-73, US District Court, Southern District of New York.
(Updates with comment from defendant and potential punishment.)
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