https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/26/opinions/sanctions-russia-ukraine-oligarchs-michel/index.html
While seizures of yachts and fancy homes may grab headlines – and may send some oligarchs scrambling to offload similar assets – the reality remains that industry after industry in the US remains wide open to anonymous, oligarchic wealth.
The reason oligarchs are able to continue acquiring, spending and enriching themselves can be summed up in one word: anonymity.
For years, a number of American industries have provided oligarchs access to anonymous financial flows needed to hide their wealth, preventing investigators and journalists from tracking their investments. This has permitted Russia’s oligarchs to hide billions of dollars from the prying eyes of government officials and regulators, allowing them to use their money for anything they wish – including expenditures that might help their benefactor Putin.
The idea that this wealth is somehow “offshore” is an outdated one; rather than looking to traditional havens like the British Virgin Islands or Cyprus for financial anonymity, oligarchs around the world have increasingly set their sights on American shores. In fact, no country has provided more anonymity for this wealth in recent years than the US.
Even while countries like the United Kingdom and Malta have attracted Russian capital, the US offers not only the same anonymous services but far bigger markets for unending financial secrecy, attracting corrupt oligarchs like moths to a flame.
For decades, the US has been the effective capital of anonymous shell company formation, with states like Delaware and Nevada effectively stripping any identifying information from the assets in question to anyone who wanted one – no questions asked.
These kinds of anonymous financial vehicles and under-the-table investments have allowed oligarchs to plow vast amounts of wealth into the US – and not only keep that wealth hidden from anyone searching it out but further use it to upend American policy and threaten American national security in the process. Even the federal government remains completely in the darkabout the scope and extent of these investments.
It keeps going and I don’t want to quote the whole article, so add in real estate and hedge funds. It’s well past time to start going after oligarchs (including western ones) wealth, maybe we could have a functioning country again. To steal a phrase, “it’s just a thought”.
