Ukrainian oligarch among 3 notorious kleptocrats sanctioned by UK

Three “notorious kleptocrats” — including a Ukrainian oligarch wanted in the US — were sanctioned by the British government on Thursday in a bid to tackle dirty money flowing through the UK, officials said.Dmytro Firtash, a puppet of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Isabel dos Santos of Angola and Latvia’s Aivars Lembergs — along with some of their friends, family and fixers — were hit with an asset freeze and travel ban under global anti-corruption measures, the government said.“The golden age of money laundering is over,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a statement.“These unscrupulous individuals selfishly deprive their fellow citizens of much-needed funding for education, healthcare and infrastructure – for their own enrichment.I committed to taking on kleptocrats and the dirty money that empowers them when I became Foreign Secretary and these sanctions mark the first step in delivering this ambition.

The tide is turning.”The new UK sanctions are a “helpful signal” that may trigger a new round of sanctions in the US and EU, Gary Kalman, director of Transparency International’s US office, told the Post.“Moving money around the globe without using the US dollar can be quite difficult,” Kalman said.“That said, the Euro and the [British] pound are certainly important currencies and so coordinating amongst these three helps make life difficult for sanctioned individuals.

Now that the UK has come out with these new sanctions, the US should also take a look.”Firtash, who made his fortune in the gas trade thanks in large part to his close ties to Putin, has stashed tens of millions of dollars in UK real estate alone, according to a press release from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, known as FCDO.Firtash is wanted in Chicago for his alleged role in a bribery conspiracy.He is believed to be hiding out in Austria to avoid extradition to the US. The UK also sanctioned his wife, Lada Firtash,...