Take the Money and Run

Andrei Vladimirovich Skoch is a Russian billionaire, steel magnate, and parliamentarian. After the despicable fashion of monied egoists, Skoch has lingered decades in politics, and since 2018 has been under U.S. sanctions because of his longstanding ties to Russian organized criminal groups, including a stint as the leader of one such enterprise.

Presently, the U.S. Justice Department—an agency well practiced in suppressing ideologies inconsistent with those of its leadership—is actively targeting Skoch, his fellow Russian oligarchs, and their assets in condemnation of their support of the Kremlin’s belligerence in Ukraine. Of particular interest to the D.O.J. is the $90-million Airbus A319 Skoch uses as a personal conveyance.

Federal prosecutors have moved to seize the aircraft which—according to a seizure warrant issued in Manhattan—Skoch came to own through a series of shell companies and trusts tied to his romantic partner.

Andrew Adams, director of the Justice Department’s poorly-named KeptoCapture task force states: "Once again U.S. law enforcement has demonstrated that international shell games will not suffice to hide the fruits of corruption and money laundering.”

Currently, Skoch’s A319 is parked in Kazakhstan, where it is ostensibly safe from Western efforts to pilfer it. Skoch—who didn’t rise to his current station in life by being poorly informed, has long since moved his $156-million, 98-meter superyacht, Madam Gu, to Dubai, another international safe-haven.

Since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict, the US Treasury and its German, Australian, Canadian, French Italian, Japanese, U.K., and EU allies, have frozen more than $330-billion worth of Russian oligarchs’ aircraft, yachts, automobiles, and real estate.

FMI: www.washington.mid.ru