A New York lawyer has pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from payments he made for Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, the latest in a crackdown on white-collar professionals who prosecutors say are helping sanctioned oligarchs
aimed at enforcing the sweeping set of economic sanctions imposed on Russia in response to the invasion. The guilty plea by Mr. Wise follows similar charges leveled against other associates of Mr. Vekselberg, a billionaire with ties to the Kremlin who was blacklisted by the U.S. in 2018.
Prosecutors have also charged two businessmen over their work managing the operations of a yacht owned by Mr. Vekselberg. One of the men—a British citizen—was arrested in Spain, according to prosecutors. The other, a Russian, remains at large.against a former high-level agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who prosecutors say accepted secret payments from Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska for work he did investigating a rival oligarch.
“From its inception, the task force has targeted those enablers of money laundering and sanctions evasion who aim to hide crime behind a veneer of professionalism,” Andrew Adams, the director of the DOJ’s task force, said Tuesday. “Admission to the bar carries with it a public trust that attorneys will act with honesty and integrity—a trust that Robert Wise chose to betray in exchange for an easy, illicit paycheck.
Mr. Wise used a lawyers’ trust account to pay for and maintain the properties, receiving funds of around $18.5 million between 2009 and 2018, prosecutors said.
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