Briton arrested in Spain for allegedly helping Russian oligarchs escape punishment | Spain

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A British man wanted by US authorities for allegedly helping a Russian ruler evade penalties related to his $90m (£73m) luxury yacht has been arrested in Spain.

The Briton, named by the US Department of Justice as Richard Masters, 52, has been charged with facilitating a sanctions evasion and money laundering scheme involving Tango, a 255-foot luxury yacht belonging to Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian businessman under US sanctions. An aide to Vladimir Putin.

Another businessman, Vladislav Osipov, 51, a Russian national, has also been charged in the United States but remains at large.

Vekselberg, the founder of the Russian energy group, has been a target of US sanctions since 2018.

Spain’s Civil Guard police said a British national was arrested at Madrid’s Barajas Airport in a joint operation with the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations. The United States had asked Spain to arrest Masters with a view to extraditing him.

The newspaper, “Guardia Civil,” said, “The detained British citizen is the owner and director of a commercial company based in Mallorca that provides maintenance and management services for boats.”

“Among his clients is a Russian citizen who has been barred from working in US markets and with US financial firms. The yacht in question was used by the said Russian citizen and his family.”

The force added that the suspect and his company are believed to have earned up to €800,000 (£707,000) for looking after the oligarch’s yacht.

“After sanctioning Vekselberg in April 2018, Masters took over management of Tango and conspired with others to evade US sanctions,” the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

“According to the indictment, among other things, Masters devised a scheme to use a pseudonym for the yacht, ‘Fanta,’ in order to conceal from financial institutions that payments in U.S. dollars were ultimately in favor of Tango and Vekselberg.”

As a result, the statement added, US financial institutions processed “hundreds of thousands of dollars of transactions” related to Tango that could not have been authorized had they known of Vekselberg’s involvement.

Those trying to circumvent sanctions against oligarchs who support Putin’s regime violate US law, said Matthew Graves, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, where the charges were filed.

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He added, “The United States will not allow its financial institutions and personnel to be manipulated or defrauded in order to benefit those who support an illegal war.”

Andrew Adams, director of the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture task force, said Masters had to face “consequences” for his actions.

“Companies and CEOs have a choice,” he said. “They can participate in global efforts to root out corruption, sanctions violations, and money laundering, and enjoy the benefits of prompt and broad cooperation; or they can, as Osipov and the Masters allegedly did, try to protect themselves and their clients behind a veil of fraud.”

Adams added, “These men have made up their minds, and are now facing the consequences of a failed attempt to profit from a sophisticated transnational criminal enterprise rather than standing up against it.”

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