TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Saturday, Jun 03, 2023

UK bank accounts frozen over 'oligarch links'

UK bank accounts frozen over 'oligarch links'

A judge has frozen UK bank accounts operated by a British businessman amid allegations they are linked to one of Russia's most controversial oligarchs.

Accounts linked to Graham Bonham-Carter, second cousin of actress Helena, and part of the extended famous family, were put on hold on Friday.

National Crime Agency investigators believe the accounts were being used to help Oleg Deripaska avoid sanctions.

It is alleged Mr Bonham-Carter manages property on behalf of the oligarch.

Granting the order, Westminster Magistrates Court has given the National Crime Agency six months to investigate the accounts, in one of the first public court moves against an oligarch since the Ukraine crisis began.

Mr Bonham-Carter's lawyers have been contacted for comment. There is no suggestion anyone else in the Bonham-Carter family is being investigated by the NCA.

Who is Oleg Deripaska?
Mr Deripaska (left) pictured with President Putin in 2014


Oleg Deripaska is one of the richest men associated with President Putin - having made billions from his stake in Russia's aluminium industries.

He's been subjected to US sanctions since 2018 - but is not under any sanctions in the UK.

He first became widely known in the UK in 2008, when it emerged he had been involved in talks over a donation to the Conservative Party via George Osborne. The donation was never made - but the story triggered a huge row at the time about links between British politicians and Russia's elites.

Mr Bonham-Carter is described, on his Linkedin profile, as the director of a company that runs private homes and estates.

Andrew Chadwick, a National Crime Agency investigator, told Westminster Magistrates Court that it wanted to freeze five bank accounts associated with Mr Bonham-Carter, of Surrey, to allow Mr Chadwick to investigate suspected links to Oleg Deripaska.

"The application is in respect of account-freezing orders for several bank accounts, held by Graham Bonham-Carter, of Surrey," said Mr Chadwick.

"My investigation is that he is heavily linked with a well-known Russian oligarch, who is linked to various crimes and criminality and is currently subject to sanctions in the United States.

"My submission is that funds in accounts held by Mr Bonham-Carter may be for the use of, or from, criminal activity."

"Oleg Deripaska is a Russian national subject to sanctions since 2019," said Mr Chadwick.

The officer told the court the US Treasury alleges Mr Deripaska has been involved in money laundering, threatening rivals, wiretapping a government official, extortion, racketeering, ordering a murder and having links to Russian organised crime. Mr Deripaska has called the US allegations and sanctions absurd.

UK and US property links


The court heard that Mr Bonham-Carter had no criminal record and was not under investigation for taking part in organised crime.

He was said to be linked to Mr Deripaska through five properties - two in the United States and three in the UK, all of which are suspected to be ultimately held for the oligarch's benefit.

In London, Mr Chadwick said two properties, worth a combined £50m, were owned by a company based in the British Virgin Islands. That company benefited Mr Deripaska and the 'care-of' mailing address had been to Mr Bonham-Carter.

Hamstone House, near Weybridge in Surrey, is on the market for £18m


The third UK property is Hamstone House, a mansion near Weybridge, Surrey, currently on the market for £18m.

Mr Chadwick said that it was owned by Edenfield Investments and, according to public research, Mr Bonham-Carter's name had appeared on Land Registry documentation for the property when it was purchased. One of the aforementioned London properties had also been the forwarding address for mail to Hamstone House.

The two US properties, in New York and Washington, are owned by a company headed by Mr Bonham-Carter.

"Based on that information [about Mr Deripaska's apparent property] I have reasonable grounds to suspect that the accounts are being held for unlawful conduct," said Mr Chadwick.

"Mr Bonham-Carter has well-documented strong links to Mr Deripaska.

"The suspicion is that property held in the name of Mr Bonham-Carter, or companies that he is linked to, in fact belongs to Mr Deripaska - and the reason for the structure is to mask the true ultimate beneficial owner and to evade the sanctions."

District Judge Tan Ikran approved the National Crime Agency's freezing order for the next six months - allowing the agency time to investigate.

The accounts hold just over £100,000, but the NCA has established that nearly £800,000 has additionally flowed through them since November 2020.

Mr Bonham-Carter will have the chance to make representations to the court at a date to be fixed.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
Close
0:00
0:00
Nvidia Joins Tech Giants as First Chipmaker to Reach $1 Trillion Valuation
Drone Attack on Moscow's Wealthiest Neighborhoods Suspected to be Launched by Ukraine
Elon Musk Meets Chinese Finance Minister in Beijing
AI ‘extinction’ should be same priority as nuclear war – experts
Prominent Hacker Forum RaidForums Suffers Substantial Data Breach
Nvidia CEO Huang says firms, individuals without AI expertise will be left behind
WPP Revolutionizes Advertising with NVIDIA's AI Powerhouse
Two US Employees Fired For Chasing Robbers Out Of Store As They Broke ''Company Policy''
If you donated to BLM, you got played
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
Actor Tom Hanks told Harvard University graduates to be superheroes in their defense of truth and American ideals, and to resist those who twist the truth for their own gain
The Sussexes' Royal Rebound: Could Harry and Meghan Markle Return to the UK?
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
France Arrests 10 on Suspicion of Failing to Respond in Time to Migrant Drowning
Neuralink Receives FDA Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Study
Is Saudi Arabia the holiest place in the world? Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions from "The Mount Sinai Stand" Discovered in Saudi Arabia
Ukrainian Intelligence Official Admits to Assassination Attempts on Putin
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Last Walmart in North Portland Closing Down
Florida's DeSantis seeks to disqualify judge in Disney case
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
A French court of appeals confirmed former President Nicolas Sarkozy's three-year jail term for corruption and influence peddling
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines calls the British monarchy "an absurdity" he wants to remove in his lifetime
King Charles III being crowned.
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
A Real woman
Vermont Man Charged with Stalking After Secretly Tracking Woman with Apple AirTag
Elon Musk Statements About Tesla Autopilot Could Be 'Deepfakes,' Lawyers Claim. Judge Evette Pennypacker Does Not Understand How Far and Advanced This Technology Became
Ukraine More Prepared for Counterattack as Reinforcements Arrive
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Discuss Migration, Defence, and Ukraine
AT&T's Successful Test of Satellite-Based Phone Call Raises Possibility of Widespread Coverage
CNN: "Joe Biden is asking for four more years — when 74% of Americans think the country is heading the wrong way“
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Cuts Short Live TV Interview Due to Health Issue
US Congresswoman threaten Twitter Files journalist with arrest
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh slams New York Times' pro-government stance and treatment of sources
Enough is enough: it's time to end the war in Ukraine. While Russia may be to blame for starting it, Russia is not the one refusing to stop it
Fox News Settles their case with Dominion Voting Systems for a staggering $787.5 MILLION
AG decries scapegoating and rushed lawmaking by government
The land of the free violence
×