2 Florida Steel Traders Sentenced to Prison for Helping Oligarch Skirt US Sanctions
Florida-based steel traders John Unsalan and Sergey Karpushkin were sentenced to six years and 21 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in a scheme to help Russian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko violate U.S. sanctions, DOJ announced.
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Unsalan, president of Orlando-based steel trading company Metalhouse, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering to advance the sanctions violations scheme and was ordered to forfeit $160 million in proceeds, DOJ said April 19. Karapushkin pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and to commit "international promotional money laundering" and was ordered to forfeit $4.7 million.
Kurchenko was sanctioned in 2015 for "misappropriating state assets of Ukraine." He controls two companies, Kompaniya Gaz-Alyans OOO in Russia and ZAO Vneshtorgservis in South Ossetia, that were listed in 2018 for "acting on behalf of and providing material support to the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in the separatist-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine."
Unsalan and Karpushkin procured steelmaking equipment and input materials for the sanctioned parties knowing that the companies and Kurchenko were subject to U.S. sanctions, DOJ said. From 2018 to 2021, Unsalan worked with others to transfer over $150 million to Kurchenko and his companies, while Unsalan conspired with Karpushkin from 2017 to 2020 to buy pig iron, steel billets and wire rods from the sanctioned companies.