Malta-based company sanctioned by US treasury over links to Cypriot 'financial fixer'

The US Department of Treasury has issued a raft of sanctions against a Cypriot lawyer accused of helping Russian oligarchs, with the lawyer’s Malta-based partner company sanctioned too.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) slapped sanctions on Christodoulos Vassiliades, a Cypriot lawyer accused of being at the heart of a web of trusts and offshore companies linked to Alisher Usmanov, an Uzbek-Russian oligarch.

OFAC imposed sanctions on Vassiliades, his children, and his law firm. The Malta-based company Vassiliades & Co. Malta has been sanctioned due to links with the Cypriot lawyer.

Vassiliades & Co. Malta was set up in 2013, offering corporate and fiduciary services in Floriana. Its areas of expertise include company law, shipping and maritime and immigration.

In a statement, OFAC said that Wednesday’s sanctions were aimed at curbing Russia’s access to the international financial system, targeting Usmanov in particular.

Usmanov is one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires and is known to be close to senior Russian officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

OFAC said Usmanov has a wide network of businesses in financial safe havens and family members through which to conduct financial transactions, allowing him to potentially circumvent sanctions.

The UK’s Foreign Office has also targeted Vassiliades and several other entities for acting as “financial fixers” for Usmanov and Russian businessman Roman Abramovich.

The Office sanctioned Vassiliades for providing professional services to the benefit of Usmanov. "It is reasonable to suspect that VASSILIADES receives a benefit from the professional services he provides to Usmanov," it said.