Sometimes, it’s better not to pay that property bill.
A British man who managed New York real estate belonging to Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska was arrested after being indicted for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions against the Russian oligarch, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Graham Bonham-Carter, a member of the politically connected family which includes celebrated actress Helen Bonham-Carter, was taken into custody in the U.K. for wire fraud in connection with funding U.S. properties purchased by Deripaska, the government said in a statement.
Under Deripaska’s employment, Bonham-Carter transmitted payments from a bank account in Russia held in the name of GBCM Limited to bank accounts held by Gracetown Inc. in New York City between March and December last year, according to the statement.
It said Gracetown used the funds from GBCM to “pay for various expenses…including staff salaries, property taxes and other services, and to maintain and keep up the U.S. properties.”
Those properties include townhouses in Lenox Hill and the West Village, which Deripaska bought for nearly $50 million in total, plus a mansion in Washington, D.C. They are among eight properties owned in New York City by Russians whose vast wealth largely derived from industries once owned by the Russian state.
The Real Deal has mapped those properties here.
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Bonham-Carter allegedly violated sanctions placed on Deripaska in 2018 for actions the Russian government had taken in Ukraine, which it later invaded. The Justice Department cited emails since 2018 in which Bonham-Carter refers to Deripaska as “boss.”
However, it appears that nobody has paid property taxes lately at Deripaska’s New York City addresses, where more than $15,000 in interest has accrued on $175,000 due in 2022, according to the city’s Department of Finance.
Bonham-Carter also allegedly lied to an auction house after being confronted for trying to move a piece of Deripaska’s art from New York to London in an apparent violation of U.S. sanctions, according to the Justice Department.
Bonham-Carter was charged with three crimes — two related to sanctions violations and one count of wire fraud. Each count carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison. The government will seek to extradite Bonham-Carter, who appeared in a London courtroom Tuesday, to the U.S.