U.S. Treasury Rejects Sanctions Appeal by Oligarch Deripaska

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has rejected further administrative reconsideration of its decision to impose sanctions against Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, TASS reported citing an official court document.

According to the document, the U.S. Treasury is to provide Deripaska with an evidentiary memorandum for the denial no later than March 26, 2020. After that, the oligarch will be able to file any amendments to his complaint “on or before April 16, 2020.”

The process will continue through legal proceedings, the businessman’s spokeswoman told TASS. According to her, Deripaska filed his complaint to reconsider the decision on sanctions against him through administrative proceedings.

“Upon request of OFAC, the legal proceedings were suspended for the period they were considering his [Deripaska’s] request. Now, once they rejected his complaint, the legal proceedings will resume,” she said.

The U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on Oleg Deripaska and companies controlled by him on April 6, 2018. The sanctions covered Rusal, Basic Element, En+, Russian Machines, EuroSibEnergo, GAZ Group, B-Finance, and the Kuban agro holding.

In January 2019, the Treasury lifted the measures against Rusal, En + and EuroSibEnergo. However, it cost Deripaska control of his enterprises. In particular, his share in the En+ holding plunged from 70% to 44.95%, while in Rusal, he directly owns only 0.01% of shares and is not entitled to receive dividends. The personal restrictions against the co-owner of those companies, Oleg Deripaska, remain in force.