Lawyers of the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska this week will create a fund in the amount of $ 600,000 for payments to journalists who will investigate the reasons for getting a businessman under US sanctions, writes the Financial Times, citing sources who know about the project. Details of the publication does not. Deripaska, from whom the FT had discussed his suit against the American authorities, did not mention the project, follows from the material.

Deripaska filed a lawsuit in March against the US Treasury Department for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and their managers. He demanded to cancel the sanctions imposed on him in April last year. Deripaska said that the US authorities acted biased and based on "rumors and understatements" and imposed sanctions in violation of the basic principles of US law. According to the businessman, due to the sanctions, his condition decreased by 81% (by $ 7.5 billion).

This estimate is different from Forbes. According to Forbes Real-Time, on April 6, 2018, on the day when the sanctions were announced, Deripaska's fortune was estimated at $ 6.76 billion. On the day he filed a lawsuit (March 15, 2019), his fortune was $ 3.58 billion - 47% less. Over the past year, his minimum size was $ 3.07 billion (December 19) - 56% less than the initial amount.

How the US imposed sanctions against Deripaska

Deripaska, at first, like all the other members of the Russian Forbes list, was entered by the US Treasury in the so-called Kremlin report. It was compiled in January 2018 and contained a list of officials and “oligarchs” whom Washington considers close to the leadership of Russia. The listing did not yet imply sanctions.

But three months later, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against several of the figures on the report, including them on the Specially Designated Nationals list. Those on the list are denied entry to the United States, their assets in the United States must be blocked, and persons from the United States are prohibited from having business contacts with them. Under these sanctions fell, including Deripaska and his eight companies.

In January, the billionaire made an unprecedented deal with the US Treasury: he gave up control over the core of his business - the En + group. In exchange, the US Treasury withdrew sanctions against En + and its controlled UC Rusal and Eurosibenergo. Deripaska himself and his other assets remained under sanctions.

According to FT, the businessman agrees to give up control in another company, the GAZ group, in order to remove it from the sanctions list. “Some of my shares will be transferred to a charitable foundation,” he said. For negotiations with OFAC, a former American diplomat, lobbyist James Warlick has been hired, writes FT.