Robert Wise, Money Laundering, New York 2024

Robert Wise, a New York attorney, pleads guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering to promote sanctions violations by an associate of a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams announced that Robert Wise, a New York attorney, pled guilty to participating in a scheme to make approximately $3.8 million in U.S. dollar payments to maintain six real properties in the United States that were owned by Viktor Vekselberg, a sanctioned oligarch.

WISE pled guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said “With today’s guilty plea, Robert Wise has admitted that he misused his position of trust as a lawyer, laundering money to promote sanctions violations by Viktor Vekselberg’s longtime associate, Vladimir Voronchenko. This Office is proud to continue its work to enforce the sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.”

Director of Task Force KleptoCapture Andrew C. Adams said: “From its inception, the Task Force has targeted those enablers of money laundering and sanctions evasion who aim to hide crime behind a veneer of professionalism. Admission to the bar carries with it a public trust that attorneys will act with honesty and integrity – a trust that Robert Wise chose to betray in exchange for an easy, illicit paycheck. The Task Force will continue to pursue those who have made the same poor decision.”

According to the allegations in the Information filed in Manhattan federal court today and other public filings, Viktor Vekselberg was designated as a Specially Designated National (“SDN”) in connection with its finding that the actions of the Government of the Russian Federation in Ukraine constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

Prior to his designation by OFAC, between approximately 2008 and 2017, Vekselberg, through a series of shell companies, acquired six real properties in the United States, specifically, (i) two apartments on Park Avenue in New York, (ii) an estate in Southampton, New York, (iii) two apartments on Fisher Island, Florida, and (iv) a penthouse apartment also on Fisher Island, Florida (collectively, “the Properties”).

The Properties were worth approximately $75 million as of the date of this Information. Voronchenko, Vekselberg’s longtime associate, retained WISE, an attorney who practiced in New York, New York, to assist in the acquisition of the Properties. WISE also managed the finances of the Properties, including by paying common charges, property taxes, insurance premiums, and other fees associated with the Properties in U.S. dollar transactions from WISE’s interest on lawyer’s trust account (“IOLTA account”).

In particular, prior to Vekselberg’s designation as an SDN, between approximately February 2009 and March 2018, shell companies owned by Vekselberg sent approximately 90 wire transfers totaling approximately $18.5 million to WISE’s IOLTA account.

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