The chief of the Justice Department unit charged with seizing assets connected to violators of sanctions against Russia said the program “cuts the purse strings from the Kremlin,” and that Congress could help it do more.
(Bloomberg) — The chief of the Justice Department unit charged with seizing assets connected to violators of sanctions against Russia said the program “cuts the purse strings from the Kremlin,” and that Congress could help it do more.
Andrew Adams, the director of Task Force KleptoCapture, said in an interview Wednesday on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power” that lawmakers could provide the authority to funnel proceeds of the seizures export control violations to Ukraine. The Justice Department currently only has the authority to convey proceeds to Ukraine from assets seized from sanctions evasions.
Adams’s remarks came after Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco made a similar appeal to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier Wednesday.
Since the task force was formed in March 2022, Adams said, “We have had seizures of mega yachts, indictments of oligarchs, arrests of their facilitators.”
“There has been tremendous progress,” he added. “There have been a slew of indictments coming down the pike” in Tampa, New York, Houston and elsewhere in the US.”
Certain seized assets, he said, can “be made available to the State Department for further benefit to Ukraine.”
Heightened authority from Congress, he added would allow the Justice Department to expand the program to “cover the proceeds of criminal violations” and “not leaving money on the table.”
Asked about continuing attempts to evade sanctions, Adams said it’s “like water on the sidewalk, it will find cracks. Our job is to identify those cracks and fill them as quickly as possible.”
In February, the Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint against properties in Manhattan, the Hamptons and Fisher Island, Florida that were worth about $75 million.
–With assistance from John Harney.
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