The U.S. Department of the Treasury published an announcement saying that "The four individuals targeted today include Petr Olegovich Aven, Mikhail Maratovich Fridman, German Borisovich Khan, and Alexey Viktorovich Kuzmichev, all of whom have served on the supervisory board of the Alfa Group Consortium (“Alfa Group”), one of the largest financial and investment conglomerates in Russia."
"Petr Olegovich Aven (Aven) serves as the chairman of the board of a Russia-based insurance company and is a member of the supervisory board of the Alfa Group. Aven was designated pursuant to E.O. 14024 for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation economy," said the Department of the Treasury.
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the persons above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are frozen. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also frozen.
In addition, all transactions by U.S. persons or within the United States that involve any property or interests of the sanctioned persons are prohibited – effectively making it illegal to do business with them.
Accompanying data notes that Aven has addresses in the United Kingdom, Moscow and Latvia, and that he holds Russian, Latvian and Luxembourg passports.
As previously reported by LSM, the manner in which Aven obtained his Latvian passport has been a long-running controversy. He was also in the headlines recently in connection with a controversial exhibition in Ogre of his porcelain collection, which was backed by the local mayor.
Aven is already on the EU's sanctions list and is not the first Latvian passport holder to be hit with U.S. sanctions. However, Aven might not have his Latvian passport for much longer with the Constitution Protection Bureau (SAB) signalling that the process of seeking revocation of his citizenship is already under way.
SAB, izvērtējot Pjotra Avena pilsonības statusu saistībā ar Pilsonības likuma 24. panta pirmās daļas 5. punktu, ir iepriekš iniciējis saziņu un informācijas iegūšanu, sadarbojoties ar citu valstu kompetentajām iestādēm.
— Satversmes aizsardzības birojs (@SAB_LV) August 11, 2023
