Justice Department seizes luxury Hamptons and NYC Pads in $75 million real estate raid on Russian oligarch

According to court documents, the Department of Justice-led Operation KleptoHook is aimed at confiscating $75 million of luxury real estate in the Hamptons, New York and Miami Beach, owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

NBC News first reported on the Vekselberg property raid last September. These raids by the Justice Department and the National Security Investigation Service (HSI) led in part to Friday’s confiscation claims.

Prosecutors allege that Vekselberg’s previously accused business partner, Vladimir Voronchenko, violated sanctions and was involved in international money laundering. In particular, after Vekselberg was sanctioned in 2018, Voronchenko attempted to sell property on Park Avenue and Southampton without proper US approval, in violation of sanctions laws.

Voronchenko was served with a grand jury summons last May in Fisher Island, and according to prosecutors, he flew from Miami to Dubai and finally to Moscow on May 22 — just 9 days after receiving the summons. According to prosecutors, he is still on the wanted list to this day.

Federal agents were spotted searching a Park Avenue high-rise and Southampton estate on Thursday linked to a Russian oligarch whose yacht was recently confiscated, according to people familiar with the matter.

Vekselberg is well known in US law enforcement and in the US political arena.

The US seizure of Vekselberg’s $90 million superyacht at Tango off the Spanish coast in early April was the first of recent Western sanctions targeting the prized assets of the Russian elite in response to the Kremlin’s incursion into Ukraine. (More fits here.)

A U.S. official familiar with the oligarchs says Vekselberg had a well-established model of looking for influence — to identify areas of potential investment, provide funds to his trustees, and then let those trustees find “ways” to move the money to close deals – which could mean contributions or payments to individuals as needed.

A company controlled by Vekselberg paid $500,000 to former Trump lawyer and convicted felon Michael Cohen. The payments were first disclosed by Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti and came from Columbus Nova, a U.S.-based company run by Vekselberg’s cousin Andrew Intrater. The payments went to Cohen’s company Essential Consultants, which was the same company through which Cohen wired Daniels $130,000.

In 2018 Andrey Shtorkh, a spokesman for Vekselberg, told NBC News that neither Vekselberg nor Renova “has ever had any contractual relationship with Mr. Cohen or Essential Consultants.”

“Regarding the relationship between Columbus Nova and Mr. Cohen, you have to ask Mr. Andy Intrater because Columbus Nova is a company that he owns and operates.”

More recently, Intrater’s contribution to the George Santos campaign has come under scrutiny. Including $23,700 in 2022 FEC public campaign donations for the Santos campaign or related PACs. In 2021, he also donated $5,800 to the Santos campaign.

Recent calls to Intrater were not returned.