A pair of U.S.-blacklisted Russian billionaires purchased nearly $20 million worth of artworks through anonymous shell companies as well as American art dealers and auction houses, federal lawmakers have found. The Treasury Department imposed visa bans and asset freezes on Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who own Russia's largest pipeline construction conglomerate, on March 20, 2014, four days after then-President Barack Obama signed an executive order calling for the imposition of sanctions on Russian nationals who assisted their country's annexation of Crimea a month prior. But shell companies linked to the two brothers and Arkady's son, Igor, managed to funnel nearly...
The U.S. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a new bipartisan report that outlines how Russian oligarchs have used the secrecy of the art industry to evade U.S. sanctions.
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