KleptoCapture is a new U.S. Department of Justice task force that will target crypto exchanges. Financial institutions, banks, money transmission services, and crypto exchanges that allow Russian oligarchs to move money “will be in the crosshairs of this investigation.”
DOJ’s KleptoCapture Task Force Will Take ‘Broader View’
KleptoCapture is a new Department of Justice task force that will pursue sanctions against Russian oligarchs and anyone helping to hide their funds, according to a top DOJ official.
On March 2, the KleptoCapture taskforce was established. It is “an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures that the United States has imposed, along with allies and partners, in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine,” the DOJ described.
Noting that the KleptoCapture task force will take a “broader view” of who it regards as a facilitator in sanctions evasions, the DOJ official stated:
Our aim is to press all sanctions-exempt Russian oligarchs and entities to face any applicable charges.
In addition to those who willingly aid in money laundering, the official stressed that “actors who stick their heads in the sand, or blind themselves to moving dirty money may face money laundering charges for their role in concealing those proceeds.”
A DOJ official stressed that:
This investigation will target financial institutions, banks and money transfer services as well as cryptocurrency exchanges that willfully fail to implement anti-money laundering procedures. They will also be prosecuted for allowing oligarchs to use their funds to transport it.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said last week that the DOJ would “leave no stone unturned” in order to seize assets in violation of the new sanctions.
“The task force is going to bring together prosecutors, agents, analysts, translators from across the department and across the U.S. government to pursue the crimes and the assets of Russian oligarchs, and others who have enabled the Russian regime responsible for the invasion of Ukraine,” the senior DOJ official detailed, adding:
These enablers amassed enormous wealth by corruption, extortion, and degrading the rule of law. The task force will succeed by disrupting, disorienting, and making it uncomfortable for the enablers.
The official clarified that just because oligarchs are subject to U.S. sanctions, it does not mean the Justice Department can simply seize their property, elaborating: “Simply being blocked, or simply belonging to a known oligarch is not in itself sufficient for the Department of Justice to forfeit that property or to obtain a seizure warrant.”
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