Last week in Florida, John Can Unsalan (aka Hurrem Can Unsalan), the president of Metalhouse LLC, was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering to assist Sergey Kurchenko, a pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch and fugitive. Sergey Karpushkin, a Belarusian national residing in Miami, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in the scheme. Unsalan pleaded guilty and was ordered to forfeit $160 million. Karpushkin pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit international money laundering and was ordered to forfeit $4.7 million.
The co-conspirators intentionally concealed from US banks and government officials financial transactions and the ultimate source and origin of the goods (pig iron, steel billets, and wire rods) that they sought to acquire, knowingly attempting to evade sanctions on Kurchenko and his companies. As of this weekend, the Metalhouse LLC website was operating: metalhouse.us/...
From the Justice Dept Press Release:
“This investigation was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls and economic countermeasures that the US, along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.”
Sources: www.justice.gov/…
www.ibtimes.co.uk/…
alchetron.com/…
www.unian.info/...
www.reuters.com/...