U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland supports the idea of transferring some proceeds from the seizure of Russian oligarch assets to Ukraine.
Speaking to the Senate Appropriations Committee on April 26, he said whatever assets from sanctioned Russian oligarchs have been recovered should go directly to Ukraine.
“The money would go into the asset forfeiture fund. So, first thing we have to do is freeze the assets,” Garland told the committee, as cited by Business Insider. “We would support legislation that would allow some of that money to go directly to Ukraine.”
Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Justice Department is seeking new legislation to have broader authority to seize and then sell the confiscated assets.
A super yacht was seized with ties to Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselberg in Spain earlier in April. The Justice Department valued it at $90 million.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department created a special unit to hunt for luxury assets belonging to sanctioned Russian tycoons as part of an effort to enforce the restrictive measures.
“The unit, called KleptoCapture, includes prosecutors and federal agents and experts in money laundering, tax enforcement and national security investigations from the FBI, the IRS, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service,” CNN reported.
The sanctions are in place over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s orders to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The tycoons are seen as enablers of the Kremlin leader who benefit from vast corruption in Russia.
Some Russian tycoons have opposed the ongoing war and latest invasion of the neighboring country.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on April 24 that Ukraine needs $5 billion a month to sustain its economy amid the unprovoked war, already in its third month.
Thousands of civilians and military personnel have been killed in the war and about a quarter of Ukraine’s population has been displaced, with over 5 million people fleeing abroad. It is the biggest conflict on the European continent since World War II.
