When the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint last month over the seizure of U.S. real estate from a Russian businessman, it was taking action against a person suspected of violating U.S. sanctions.
The targets were two apartments in a wealthy enclave outside Miami, Florida, that were officially registered with a Delaware corporation. In fact, prosecutors say Russian tycoon Viktor Perevalov used the company to conceal his ownership.
But Perevalov is not the only one dodging sanctions.
A VOA investigation found that business partner Valery Abramov, whose bank account was mentioned in the complaint, also owns property in Florida and was on a U.S. economic blacklist He later transferred it to his wife.
This may be a violation of sanctions.
Brian O’Toole, a former U.S. Treasury official and sanctions expert, argued that Abramoff’s deal with his wife should never have been possible and that the transfer should not have eliminated a freezeable interest in the property.
But he said enforcing sanctions can sometimes look like a “giant game of whack-a-mole” when bad actors often create new companies and find new ways to evade restrictions.
Abramov and Perevalov did not respond to VOA’s requests for comment. The U.S. Department of Justice also declined to comment.
“King of National Procurement”
Abramov and Perevalov are co-founders of VAD, AO, a Russian company that has earned billions of dollars building roads for the Russian state.
According to media reports, the businessmen met while attending university in St. Petersburg, Russia, and decided to start a business together. They registered VAD – short for “High Quality Roads” – in 1994.
Abramov serves as the company’s CEO, and Perevalov serves as deputy CEO.
Their first job was to restore the grounds of a vegetable warehouse. Since then, VAD has experienced a meteoric rise, winning tenders for the construction of federal highways in northwestern Russia.
They are so successful that the Russian version of Forbes magazine regularly includes these individuals on its annual list of “Kings of State Procurement.”
The two have also owned real estate in south Florida since the late 1990s. At least one of Perevalov’s children, his youngest daughter, is a U.S. citizen and lists her hometown as Miami on her Facebook page.
The two men and their companies came under scrutiny after VAD was awarded a $2.3 billion contract in 2018 to build the Tavrida highway in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. US sanctions.
But initially this didn’t actually freeze their assets in the United States.
According to the forfeiture complaint, in 2008, Perevalov and his wife purchased two condominiums as investment properties at One Bal Harbor, an elite residential community in Bal Harbor, Florida.
After Perevalov was sanctioned, he transferred the apartment to 1616 Collins, LLC, a newly registered company in Delaware, a state known for its “tax advantages, privacy, convenience, simplified structure and corporate courts.” And favored by many American companies. Forbes.
Miami-Dade County property records show the company paid $1.4 million for each apartment.
On paper, the company’s only beneficiary was Perevalov’s U.S. citizen daughter, who was a minor at the time. Despite this, Perevalov remains the actual owner of the property, the forfeiture complaint states.
After the transfer, a local real estate professional continued to rent the apartment for Perevalov and deposited the rental income into 1616 Collins’ bank account. Prosecutors said the company’s account received more than $288,000 in deposits from real estate brokerage firms between December 2018 and February 2023.
In addition to paying taxes and utility bills, the rental income “was used to facilitate existing transaction plans with defendants’ properties and to conceal the fact that Perevalov was the true beneficial owner of defendants’ properties,” the complaint states.
Although the complaint does not name the real estate agent, property records clearly identify him: Roman Sinyavsky, owner of Miami VIP Properties, a company specializing in luxury real estate. By.
Sinyavsky obtained power of attorney from Perevalov and Abramov, allowing him to conduct financial transactions on their behalf. The real estate agent was also listed as the manager of 1616 Collins LLC, prosecutors said.
Sinyavsky, acting as Perevalov’s de facto attorney, signed the warranty deed transferring the apartment to 1616 Collins.
There is no indication Siniawski has been charged with a crime. He declined to comment for this story.
beyond complaints
VAD executives’ investments in Florida extend beyond Perevalov’s One Bal Harbor condominium. The same goes for their alleged evasion of sanctions.
A VOA search of Miami-Dade County property records found that Perevalov disposed of another apartment months before he was sanctioned, while Abramov moved another five months later.
The properties were not mentioned in the forfeiture complaint, and it is unclear whether the Justice Department will be able to take any action on them.
Property records show that in 1998, the Perevalovs purchased a condo in the elite Bella Vista Mid Rise North complex in Aventura, Florida, for $840,000. They sold it for $1.2 million in November 2017, two months before Viktor Perevalov was sanctioned.
It is unclear whether Perevalov expected he would soon be blacklisted, although prosecutors said media reports of impending U.S. sanctions on Russia influenced Russian oligarch Andrei VTB chairman · Costin, who allegedly concealed his real estate holdings in the United States.
In 1998, Abramov and his wife, Elena, bought an apartment for $1.11 million in the Residence du Cap building at 2600 Island Avenue, in Aventura, a short distance from the Perevalovs’ home. The apartment is not far away.
In June 2018, four months after being sanctioned, Abramov transferred his share of the property to his wife, according to property records.
Under sanctions, such a transfer probably shouldn’t be allowed. “At no time were the Defendants’ properties, the Abramov Accounts, or any other property belonging to Perevalov and Abramov immune from sanctions. OFAC has never issued a license to anyone to allow anyone to Valov and Abramov entered into the transactions or on behalf of Perevalov and Abramov,” prosecutors wrote in the complaint.
Nine months later, Elena Abramova sold the apartment for $1.24 million, according to property records.
How did Abramov transfer property despite being on a financial blacklist? O’Toole, a former Treasury official, said all is not plain sailing in the world of sanctions.
Compliance can work more effectively in highly regulated areas of the economy, such as banking. So-called “non-bank financial institutions” don’t always scrutinize their customers.
“OFAC regulations simply provide that sanctions cannot be violated,” O’Toole told VOA. “They don’t say you have to check every day. They don’t say you have to check when a transaction occurs.”
Unlike the case of the Perevalov Bal Harbor Apartments, this time the Ministry of Justice may not be able to apply for the seizure of the real estate.
O’Toole, the sanctions expert, said that technically, if Abramoff violated sanctions by transferring the apartment to his wife, all further transactions with the property may be legally void.
In practice, the situation becomes more complex.
The current owner of the apartment does not appear to have any connection to the Abramov family and may not be aware that the property is frozen due to sanctions. The Justice Department is unlikely to want to wrest it from them.
“It’s hard to imagine the U.S. government going all out,” O’Toole said.
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