In the USA, Malofeev's assets were confiscated: whether to wait for other expropriations

In the USA, Malofeev's assets were confiscated: whether to wait for other expropriations



How much money the West can take away from the Russians

The American court ruled to confiscate $ 5.4 million, which belongs to a Russian businessman, the founder of the Tsargrad TV channel, Konstantin Malofeev, who is under Washington sanctions. The businessman was accused of "violating the sanctions imposed against him." This precedent was the first official permission from the US authorities to confiscate assets belonging to Russians since the beginning of the NWO. In this case, the money can be directed to help Ukraine. How far the authorities of unfriendly countries can go in relation to Russian capital and how many assets they can take away, MK found out from experts.

The scandalous decision regarding the money of Konstantin Malofeev was made by the judge of the federal court of Manhattan, Paul Gardef. It was the first order to confiscate the assets of a Russian businessman since the Justice Department set up a task force in 2022 to cut the finances of "Russian President Vladimir Putin's allies in response to a special operation in Ukraine," Reuters noted. The US Department of Justice claims that Malofeev "violated the sanctions imposed against him by continuing to organize the work of the media in Europe, which have a pro-Kremlin focus."

Sanctions against the Russian businessman were introduced back in 2014. The entrepreneur was accused of financing supporters of the reunification of Crimea with Russia. The situation worsened last year. In April 2022, US Attorney General Merrick Garland accused Malofeev of trying to circumvent restrictive measures, in particular, creating a scheme for publications controlled by him to operate in the European Union. US authorities also intercepted "millions of dollars" that the businessman was supposed to receive from an unnamed US financial institution. In December, prosecutors said they had the right to confiscate money from Malofeev's Sunflower Bank account in Denver (just $5.4 million) because he "tried to transfer it to a business partner in violation of US sanctions."

Recall that the confiscation of Russian assets, both public and private, was discussed abroad almost from the beginning of the NWO. The US Senate voted for amendments that would allow the confiscation of the assets of Russian businessmen in favor of Ukraine. And in January, at a seminar at the Hudson Institute, the head of the US Department of Justice working group on the identification and arrest of Russian assets subject to US sanctions, Andrew Adams, said that the confiscated funds could be transferred to Kyiv. However, many experts doubt that the money will leave American bank accounts. “I think that these funds will be used to pay off the debt that Ukraine now has to the United States,” says Vadim Tkachenko, a lawyer and founder of the vvCube consulting group. - Since this money is now mainly spent on the purchase of American weapons, it is likely that these funds will be directed to the same. It is unlikely that they will go into someone's pocket in Ukraine, but since violations are periodically allowed in the supply of weapons, one can assume such a scenario.

But Russia could take similar steps in response, experts warn. “The Americans have begun to do what they had only threatened before,” says Alexander Razuvaev, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Guild of Financial Analysts and Risk Managers. - On the other hand, it is not very clear why Mr. Malofeev kept money in the USA. There are safe countries - Turkey, the Emirates. Given his role in the development of the situation in eastern Ukraine, he set himself up. I think that our authorities will respond to this. It is possible to nationalize the assets of investors from unfriendly countries on the Moscow Stock Exchange, with the expropriation of both the securities themselves and the dividends on them, with the subsequent transfer to businessmen affected by Western sanctions.” In any case, this is a political decision. By the way, on the “patriotic” TV channel, Malofeev was very fond of scolding the Bank of Russia for buying American bonds. So the Central Bank of the Russian Federation “zeroed” almost everything, and for some reason the businessman himself kept money in the United States and lost it as a result, the expert recalled.

How many more Russian assets may be under arrest is an open question. If we talk about the EU, back in November last year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen noted that a total of 19 billion euros of private funds of Russian businessmen were blocked. But there is also the US and other countries, so the total could be much higher. “The net outflow of private capital from Russia in 2022 may exceed $250 billion, while Russia’s GDP in 2022 amounted to about $2 trillion,” said Maxim Osadchiy, head of the analytical department at BKF-Bank. In other words, we can talk about an amount exceeding a tenth of the growth of the entire Russian economy over the past year. For comparison: in 2021, the outflow of private capital amounted to $ 74.1 billion. The main contribution to this outflow is made by "oligarchs" and other rich people. The strengthening of sanctions pressure does not lead to a decrease, but, on the contrary, to an increase in the outflow of private capital from Russia, the expert emphasized.

As for the legal grounds for the case, it looks like the Americans "allowed everything for themselves." “The United States has the right to block the assets of a state located on its territory that have committed hostile acts against the United States, and in some cases, the seizure of assets is allowed,” said Vladimir Kuznetsov, vice president of the Association of Lawyers for Registration, Liquidation, Bankruptcy and Legal Representation. “The President of the United States at the end of 2022 signed a law allowing the US Department of Justice to transfer some of the confiscated assets to the State Department to assist Ukraine.”

How widely the amendments adopted last year will be applied, in fact, depends only on the appetites of the American hawks. “In order to talk about the breadth of application of the confiscation practice, one must first understand its criteria,” Garegin Mitin, Associate Professor of the Faculty of State and Municipal Administration of Synergy University, continues the conversation. — Theoretically, the Russian origin of the capital used to acquire the assets could in itself become a criterion for confiscation or nationalization. And then every Russian oligarch gets hit.” At the same time, it is impossible to take it away “out of lawlessness” due to the violation of the balance of legality and legitimacy during confiscation: it may not be accepted by Western society. Yet there states must act according to the law. One thing can be said: the West itself began to shake the foundations of the sacred right of private property for it, summed up the expert.



Source link