I feel that no sanctioned Russian Oligarch gets more attention from the US and its media than Oleg Deripaska.
Last week retired FBI agent, Charles McConigal, was arrested and charged with allegedly violating US sanctions by taking money from Deripaska (who is sanctioned). According to the indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York, Deripaska paid McConigal to research the activities of another Russian Oligarch. A spokesperson for Deripaska told the New York Times that Deripaska did not hire McConigal for any purpose.
And in September 2022, as I reported, Deripaska and his girlfriend, Ekaterina Lobanova (who, according to the Daily Mail has used the alias Lizzy Sex Relax) and two others were indicted by the Justice Department for violating the sanctions against him and his businesses, because he’d allegedly organised for Lobanova to fly over and have their first baby here and were planning to repeat the experience for baby #2.
I’ve been doing some reporting over the weekend so stand by for fresh news from me this week of Deripaska, or “OVD” as some people refer to him.
But, for now, to set the backdrop, I want to remind you of a passage I wrote in March of last year. It explains partly why I am interested in Deripaska, having had an unusual and memorable few moments with him on his yacht and on the dance floor back at a friend’s birthday party in Montenegro in 2011.
It is not your typical journalistic encounter with a Russian Oligarch…