U.S. To Use Confiscated Russian Oligarch Money To Support Ukrainian Veterans — State Department

Washington D.C./16.02.23/Turan:   The Biden Administration is intending to use the first-ever transfer of forfeited funds, $5.4 million to support the people of Ukraine, particularly focusing on veterans, according to a key State Department official overseeing foreign assistance, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Dafna Rand, the director of the Office of Foreign Assistance at the Department of State, was speaking to reporters during a briefing organized by the Department's Foreign Press Center.

According to her, the U.S. is assessing how to best utilize seized Russian assets in its effort to provide additional aid to Ukraine.

President Biden last December signed into law the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Act, which allows the transfer of seized assets belonging to Russian oligarchs to the people of Ukraine.

The Justice Department's KleptoCapture Task Force is "dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures that the U.S. has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military campaign" she said.

In the first asset recovery, $5.4 million were captured by the KleptoCapture Task Force, and it was a proceeds of a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions imposed by a close ally of Putin’s.

"His name is Konstanin Malofeev, and he has sought for many years to destabilize Eastern Europe through financing paramilitary groups in Ukraine and in other parts of Europe," she said.

"We were able to seize 5.4 of these million dollars of his, transfer them – we’re in the process of transferring them to the State Department, and we are intending to use them to support the people of Ukraine, particularly focusing on veterans," she added.

"The asset recovery is a good news story because it’s a measure of justice, frankly, even if it’s a small amount of justice, that those who have been spending their money to finance paramilitary groups and ruthless bellicose groups across that front and really the engines of Putin’s war machine against Ukraine are being held a little bit to justice and some of these – their criminal acts are being held accountable," Rand said in response to TURAN's questions.

Alex Raufoglu