Florida Steel Trader Hurrem Can Unsalan Sentenced for Money Laundering, Sanctions Violations

ORLANDO, FL – In a major blow to international money launderers, John Can Unsalan, aka Hurrem Can Unsalan, the president of Orlando-based steel trading firm Metalhouse LLC, was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering to promote violations of U.S. sanctions against Sergey Kurchenko, a pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch.

Unsalan, 44, of Orlando, pleaded guilty and was ordered to forfeit $160 million in proceeds from the offense. His former business associate, Sergey Karpushkin, a 52-year-old Belarusian national residing in Miami, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in the scheme.

Kurchenko was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in 2015 for his role in misappropriating state assets of Ukraine or of an economically significant entity in Ukraine. Two sanctioned companies – Kompaniya Gaz-Alyans OOO, based in the Russian Federation and controlled by Kurchenko, and ZAO Vneshtorgservis, based in the Russian occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia – were designated by OFAC in 2018 for acting on behalf of and providing material support to the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in the separatist-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine.

As set forth in court filings, Unsalan and Karpushkin engaged in trade with these sanctioned individuals and entities to procure steelmaking equipment and raw material despite knowing that Kurchenko, Gaz-Alyans and Vneshtorgservis were subject to U.S. sanctions that prohibited U.S. persons and entities from doing business with them. No licenses from OFAC were applied for or issued for these payments or transfers.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division made the announcement.

The FBI Tampa and Washington Field Offices investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chauncey A. Bratt for the Middle District of Florida, Trial Attorney Emma Ellenrieder of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, and Trial Attorneys Sean O’Dowd and Sean Fern of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section prosecuted the case.

The investigation was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls and economic countermeasures that the United States, along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.