Andrew Adams, a veteran prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, was tapped to lead Task Force KleptoCapture, Garland announced in a speech on Thursday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice in Washington in January. On Thursday, he announced veteran prosecutor Andrew Adams would lead the DOJ's task force investigating Russian oligarchs. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, Pool)
"As the president noted in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, the department has just launched an interagency taskforce to hold accountable Russian oligarchs and others who seek to evade U.S. sanctions or otherwise profit from corrupt conduct," Garland said during his remarks. "It will complement the work of a transatlantic task force announced by the president and European leaders on Feb. 26."
The task force is aiming at ensuring that the sanctions, export controls and other economic countermeasures issued by the U.S. and its allies will isolate the Kremlin from global markets and impose "serious costs for this unjustified act of war," according to the DOJ.
To accomplish that goal, Adams will be working with the DOJ's federal and international partners to "investigate, arrest, and prosecute those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war against Ukraine," Garland said, adding that the task force will be overseen by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
Adams is co-chief of the Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises unit of the SDNY, a position he has held since 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. He joined the SDNY in 2013. As the co-chief, Adams oversees the prosecution of crimes involving international finance and international organized crime.
The unit, according to the SDNY, pursues those who participate and promote criminal activity through money laundering and other forms of illicit finance. Through this, the unit exposes and prosecutes an array of other crimes that stem from money laundering.
Adams is a member of the team currently prosecuting a veterinarian, horse trainers and a horse-product supplier accusing them of administering performance-enhancing drugs to racehorses and hiding the scheme from regulators.
He also played a role last year in the prosecution of a Colombian national who admitted to laundering money tied to bribes, which prosecutors said were paid to Brazilian politicians in connection with state contracts. The man, Juan Carlos Balaguera Villamizar pled guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy, tied to a scheme to launder bribes that were paid to Brazilian politicians through U.S. banks in May.
Additionally, Adams was involved in a case against Razhden Shulaya, a Russian man who prosecutors alleged led a vast and violent criminal enterprise that engaged in an array of criminal schemes, including extortion, theft, trafficking in stolen goods and fraud.
In December 2018, Shulaya was sentenced to 45 years in prison and ordered to pay $2.17 million in forfeiture and restitution in the amount of $550,000.
--Additional reporting by Jack Queen, Lauren Berg and Stewart Bishop. Editing by Nicole Bleier.
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