Prosecutors on Wednesday moved to confiscate $5.4 million from a U.S. bank account belonging to Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev, who Washington has accused of financing separatists in eastern Ukraine and Crimea and imposed sanctions on him. (Reuters)
Konstantin Malofeyev is the founder of Tsargrad TV, and has been reported in western media to be a regular “consultant” to the Kremlin. He is the “Orthodox oligarch” behind Tsargrad TV, a channel he founded “with the help of the Fox News ex-director Jack Hanick,” according to multiple reports. Hanick was charged earlier this year for violating of U.S. sanctions and making false statements to the FBI ands was arrested in London in April.
Hanick currently awaits extradition to the U.S. from the U.K., and faces up to 20 years in prison if successfully extradited. According to the DOJ, Malofeyev conspired with former Fox News director Jack Hanick to illegally acquire European media properties with a $10 million investment. Hanick is also the former director of Sean Hannity, a political commentator on Fox News.
The DOJ press release also indicates that OFAC designated Malofeyev as a Specially Designated National (SDN) in 2014, pursuant to Executive Order 13,660, because he “was one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea, and materially assisted, sponsored, and provided financial, material or technological support for, or goods and services to or in support of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a separatist organization in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk.”
