By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors on Thursday charged a television producer for Konstantin Malofeyev, described as a Russian oligarch, with violating Crimea-related sanctions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said on Thursday.
John Hanick, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in February in London, and the United States is seeking his extradition. Prosecutors said Hanick was charged with violating U.S. sanctions arising from Russia’s 2014 invasion of the Crimean peninsula.
Hanick could not be reached for comment.
Malofeyev is closely tied to Russian aggression in Ukraine, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. He owns Tsargrad TV, a Christian Orthodox television channel.
Malofeyev was placed under U.S. and EU sanctions in 2014 over accusations that he funded pro-Moscow separatists fighting in Ukraine, which he denies. Russia considers such Western sanctions illegal.
The unsealing of the indictment came the day after the U.S. Department of Justice launched a task force, known as KleptoCapture, aimed at seeking civil and criminal forfeitures of assets belonging to Russian oligarchs who Washington says are enabling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman)
