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Russian Oligarchs Are Hurrying Their Jets and Yachts to Safety. America Is Letting Them.

Russian Oligarchs Are Hurrying Their Jets and Yachts to Safety. America Is Letting Them.​

“We can’t tell if they’re Sinaloa or Hezbollah. We can’t tell if they’re Russian either.”​

I agree with the professor quoted in the article...

Georgetown professor and expert on corruption and national security. The problem, Vittori said, is that property just can’t be taken arbitrarily.

“We don’t just want mass expropriations just because we can,” Vittori said. “The reason we’re doing this is for rule of law to prevail, we don’t want to undermine our own rule of law to do it.”

In fact, experts said that a big part of why oligarchs from Russia, and elsewhere, choose to hide their most valuable assets in the United States or Europe is because of the strong legal and banking systems that ensure a lengthy and elaborate process has to be followed before property can be taken.
 

Russian Oligarchs Are Hurrying Their Jets and Yachts to Safety. America Is Letting Them.​

“We can’t tell if they’re Sinaloa or Hezbollah. We can’t tell if they’re Russian either.”​

It shouldn’t be difficult to seize—or at least freeze and hang onto—the wealth Russian oligarchs have deposited in the West. After all, a mega-yacht is hard to miss, and private jets, some of the most valuable assets that can be purchased, can barely move across an airport taxiway without being directed and tracked by air traffic controllers. Earlier this week, France did manage to seize the 290-foot Amore Vero, owned by close Putin associate Igor Sechin, but it was one of the few oligarch-linked items taken since the war started.

But, as the Washington Post reported on Friday, American and European governments are finding their hands tied in actually taking control of the assets.

Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) said the FAA’s aircraft registration system is flawed and undercuts the nation’s ability to oversee or punish Russian oligarchs and a range of other potential bad actors. He said the FAA has for years been “highly unresponsive” on the issue of making sure the agency knows who is registering and leasing planes in the United States.
Lynch said he agrees with the measures President Biden took to bar Russian flights. “But knowing the state of the law and administrative inadequacies, I’m less optimistic for his success unless we change the registration process,” Lynch said.
“We can’t tell if they’re Sinaloa or Hezbollah,” Lynch said, citing the Mexican drug cartel and Lebanese militia. “We can’t tell if they’re Russian either.”
Lynch is not using hyperbole either. A 2017 Boston Globe investigation found that for just $5, planes can be registered in the United States and receive coveted US issued N-numbers—the identifying code on the tail of the airplane. The investigation found planes that could be tied to both Hezbollah and drug cartels had been registered in the United States through anonymous trusts that no one in the US government ever bothered to determine the true owner of.
Today, thousands of planes are registered using practices that can allow for anonymity of ownership. A Spotlight review shows that one out of every six aircraft is registered through trusts, Delaware corporations, or using post office box addresses, techniques commonly used to make it hard to discern the true owner. The number is likely even higher because the FAA acknowledged that it does not verify the validity of documents filed for the registry’s more than 300,000 planes.
The FAA might not know who really owns the planes, but that doesn’t mean their ownership is a secret. In fact, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Twitter account @RUOligarchJets has gone viral based purely on tweets identifying the flight plans of Russian oligarch-owned planes.

And earlier this week, transparency experts told Mother Jones that oligarchs who are sanctioned—or worry that they are about to be sanctioned—are scrambling to move their assets.

“We know that the yachts are showing up in Maldives, that their aircraft are showing up in the United Arab Emirates,” said Jodi Vittori, a Georgetown professor and expert on corruption and national security. The problem, Vittori said, is that property just can’t be taken arbitrarily.

“We don’t just want mass expropriations just because we can,” Vittori said. “The reason we’re doing this is for rule of law to prevail, we don’t want to undermine our own rule of law to do it.”

In fact, experts said that a big part of why oligarchs from Russia, and elsewhere, choose to hide their most valuable assets in the United States or Europe is because of the strong legal and banking systems that ensure a lengthy and elaborate process has to be followed before property can be taken.
Loopholes and lax enforcement have complicated the process as well.

s Vittori told Mother Jones: “Time is indeed of essence, and this stuff can be moved very quickly.” He added, “It’s not like the oligarchs will wait.
 
If the ownership isn't transparent seize it. There is no legitimate reason for hiding that.

Sort it out later.
seems logical..........

protecting the upper class ........
 
It shouldn’t be difficult to seize—or at least freeze and hang onto—the wealth Russian oligarchs have deposited in the West. After all, a mega-yacht is hard to miss, and private jets, some of the most valuable assets that can be purchased, can barely move across an airport taxiway without being directed and tracked by air traffic controllers. Earlier this week, France did manage to seize the 290-foot Amore Vero, owned by close Putin associate Igor Sechin, but it was one of the few oligarch-linked items taken since the war started.

But, as the Washington Post reported on Friday, American and European governments are finding their hands tied in actually taking control of the assets.


Lynch is not using hyperbole either. A 2017 Boston Globe investigation found that for just $5, planes can be registered in the United States and receive coveted US issued N-numbers—the identifying code on the tail of the airplane. The investigation found planes that could be tied to both Hezbollah and drug cartels had been registered in the United States through anonymous trusts that no one in the US government ever bothered to determine the true owner of.

The FAA might not know who really owns the planes, but that doesn’t mean their ownership is a secret. In fact, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Twitter account @RUOligarchJets has gone viral based purely on tweets identifying the flight plans of Russian oligarch-owned planes.

And earlier this week, transparency experts told Mother Jones that oligarchs who are sanctioned—or worry that they are about to be sanctioned—are scrambling to move their assets.

“We know that the yachts are showing up in Maldives, that their aircraft are showing up in the United Arab Emirates,” said Jodi Vittori, a Georgetown professor and expert on corruption and national security. The problem, Vittori said, is that property just can’t be taken arbitrarily.

“We don’t just want mass expropriations just because we can,” Vittori said. “The reason we’re doing this is for rule of law to prevail, we don’t want to undermine our own rule of law to do it.”

In fact, experts said that a big part of why oligarchs from Russia, and elsewhere, choose to hide their most valuable assets in the United States or Europe is because of the strong legal and banking systems that ensure a lengthy and elaborate process has to be followed before property can be taken.
Loopholes and lax enforcement have complicated the process as well.

s Vittori told Mother Jones: “Time is indeed of essence, and this stuff can be moved very quickly.” He added, “It’s not like the oligarchs will wait.
This sounds like the sort of government you get when politicians care only about re-election and donor needs, and not competent government.
 
Igor Sechin named his yacht Amore Vero?

Great tell from an oligarch.
 

Russian Oligarchs Are Hurrying Their Jets and Yachts to Safety. America Is Letting Them.​

“We can’t tell if they’re Sinaloa or Hezbollah. We can’t tell if they’re Russian either.”​


I have no idea what America is supposed to do about a person taking a jet or yacht somewhere?

Did anyone start taking Americans yachts after the Shock & Awe terror attacks on Iraq? I dont recall that happening.
 
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