Vladislav Osipov, Viktor Vekselberg Sanctions Evasion, District of Columbia 2024

Washington D.C. Businessmen Charged in Sanctions Evasion Scheme

Two businessmen, Vladislav Osipov and Richard Masters, have been charged with facilitating a sanctions evasion and money laundering scheme in relation to the ownership and operation of the Motor Yacht (M/Y) Tango, a $90 million, 255-foot luxury yacht owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

According to the indictment, despite U.S. sanctions issued against Vekselberg in April 2018, Osipov and Masters designed a complicated ownership structure of shell companies to hide Vekselberg’s involvement in the vessel. Osipov, an employee of Vekselberg who functioned as a property manager for Tango, allegedly made hundreds of thousands of dollars of transactions for Tango that U.S. financial institutions would not have permitted had they known of Vekselberg’s involvement in the financial transaction.

Osipov and Masters advised and enabled Tango employees to continue to do business with numerous U.S. companies, using various workarounds to avoid sanctions, such as payments in other currencies and through third parties. The efforts of these facilitators permitted Tango to continue to operate as a luxury yacht with the full array of services and luxury goods available to it, supported by hundreds of thousands of dollars of illegally-obtained U.S. services and U.S. financial transactions, and all for the benefit of Vekselberg.

“Facilitators of sanctions evasion enable the oligarchs supporting Vladimir Putin’s regime to flout U.S. law,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves. “The United States will not allow its financial institutions and persons to be used to facilitate sanctions evasion and money laundering.”

The United States requested that the Kingdom of Spain provisionally arrest Masters for purposes of extradition. The arrest was executed by the Spanish Guardia Civil today. An arrest warrant against Osipov is outstanding.

The charges against Osipov and Masters include conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit offenses against the United States, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and money laundering. The defendants are currently in custody, with Osipov’s status unknown and Masters being held in Spain awaiting extradition.

The case is being investigated by Task Force KleptoCapture, the FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations. The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is prosecuting the case.

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