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Russian tycoon Vekselberg has no accounts in Cyprus — spokesperson

Under Secretary of the US Treasury Sigal Mandelker earlier said that "following April 6 oligarch designations, Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg both have their accounts frozen."
Victor Vekselberg Mikhail Metzel/TASS
Victor Vekselberg
© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/. Russian businessman Victor Vekselberg has no bank accounts in Cyprus, his spokesperson said, commenting on Tuesday’s report that they have been frozen after the US Treasury put Vekselberg on the sanctions list.

"He never had accounts in Cyprus," the source said. "Certain companies affiliated to us do have accounts there, but none of the companies had significant funds deposited on those accounts."

Under Secretary of the US Treasury Sigal Mandelker said in a this report for the Senate hearings on Tuesday that "following April 6 oligarch designations, Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg both have their accounts frozen."

Mandelker added that Cyprus remains a jurisdiction that raises US concerns in terms of Russian money laundering.

A spokesperson for Deripaska was not immediately available for a comment.

On April 6, the US authorities announced sanctions against a number of Russian officials, businessmen and companies. Among them were Oleg Deripaska and associated companies Rusal, Basic Element holdings, En+ and Russian Machines, Eurosibenergo, GAZ Group, B-Finance investment company and Kuban agro holding. Being included in the sanctions list means frozen assets in the US and ban on American citizens preventing them from doing any business with these companies.