WHY HAS OFAC DELISTED YACHT LINKED TO RUSSIAN FRAUDSTER AND ALLEGED COCAINE TRAFFICKER TIED TO PUTIN?

 

ADDICTION (9HA4571) Yacht Malta flag; Vessel Year of Build 2010; Vessel Registration Identification IMO 1010193; MMSI 248233000 (vessel) [RUSSIA-EO14024] (Linked To: ADONEV, Sergei Nikolaevich). 

While OFAC, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, is a major player in the global fight against money laundering and sanctions evasion, sometimes its actions have me questioning its mission. The agency often releases individuals, entities and property from existing sanctions quietly, without any published explanation or reason. 

While when circumstances arise that confirm that a sanctioned item is no longer affiliated with a certain already-sanctioned individual, it is appropriate to release the sanction, at other times I wonder aloud whether a specific delisting occurred as the result of behind-the-scenes lobbying in D.C. by powerful and influential law firms, who partners often include former US Treasury officials.

The press in Malta noted today that a SDN-sanctioned yacht, linked to Russian multi-millionaire (and PEP) SERGEI ADONYEV, a Russian financier, and himself under OFAC sanctions for his connections to Vladimir Putin, has been very quietly released. Adonyev, who reportedly was sentenced to thirty months in the US for fraud, and was deported at the conclusion of his sentence, was also allegedly linked to cocaine trafficking into Europe through St. Petersburg. The yacht was appropriately named ADDICTION, which speaks volumes about Adonyev's alleged activities.

Perhaps this is a good time for the Secretary of the Treasury to promulgate a regulation requiring OFAC to designate, with specificity, the precise reason a sanctioned individual entity or property is delisted. These actions, which take place out of the public eye, with no apparent oversight, remind me of sentence reductions given to individuals convicted in Federal court, which occur in total press darkness, and can only be found by reviewing a defendant's docket on PACER. We do not need government action with press blackouts, as it neither serves the public, nor the ends of justice.

The following deletions have been made to OFAC's SDN List: 

SEEMAR, Satish, United Arab Emirates; DOB 25 Dec 1961; POB Punjab, India; Gender Male; Passport Z1917610 expires 18 Mar 2019 (individual) [GLOMAG] (Linked To: KADYROV, Ramzan Akhmatovich). 

ADDICTION (9HA4571) Yacht Malta flag; Vessel Year of Build 2010; Vessel Registration Identification IMO 1010193; MMSI 248233000 (vessel) [RUSSIA-EO14024] (Linked To: ADONEV, Sergei Nikolaevich).