Fighters of Wagner Group private military company deploy outside the Russian Southern Military District staff headquarters Saturday in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned four companies and one individual for gold-funding Wagner fighters, who led a short-lived rebellion over the weekend against Russia’s leadership and have committed “widespread human rights abuses.” Photo by Arkady Budnitsky/UPI |
License PhotoJune 27 (UPI) — The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned four companies and one individual for gold-funding the Wagner Group, which led a short-lived rebellion over the weekend against Russia’s leadership and has committed “widespread human rights abuses.”
The sanctions were filed Tuesday by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against Midas Resources mining company, Diamville diamond trading company, Dubai-based Industrial Resources General Trading, Limited Liability Company DM and Audrey Nikolayevish Ivanov, a Russian national and executive in the Wagner Group.
All of those sanctioned were accused of engaging in “illicit gold dealings to fund the Wagner Group to sustain and expand its armed forces, including in Ukraine and Africa,” the Treasury Department said in a statement, adding that the “individual has been central to activities of Wagner Group units in Mali.”
“Treasury’s sanctions disrupt key actors in the Wagner Group’s financial network and international structure,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement.
“The Wagner Group funds its brutal operations in part by exploiting natural resources in countries like the Central African Republic and Mali. The United States will continue to target the Wagner Group’s revenue streams to degrade its expansion and violence in Africa, Ukraine and anywhere else.”
Those sanctioned Tuesday will have their properties within the United States blocked and will be prevented by the OFAC from completing any new transactions in the United States.
In addition to the sanctions, the Departments of the Treasury, State, Labor, Commerce and Homeland Security, as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development, issued a new advisory Tuesday, warning about investment in the gold sector across sub-Saharan Africa.
“Without adequate due diligence and appropriate mitigating measures, an industry participant may inadvertently contribute to one or more of these risks, including conflict and terror financing, money laundering activities, sanctions evasion, human rights and labor rights abuses and environmental degradation,” the advisory from the departments said.
According to the Treasury Department, the Wagner Group “has committed widespread human rights abuses and has appropriated natural resources across multiple countries in Africa.”
The Wagner Group, which is a proxy military force of the Kremlin, has “carried out combat operations around the world, including Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine. Wagner has also participated in a scheme to procure weapons for its operations in Ukraine, using false end-use certificates in Mali,” the Treasury Department added.
Over the weekend, rebel Wagner forces captured a city 120 miles from Moscow in protest before turning it back over. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin a traitor and made a deal to exile the mercenary leader to Belarus, one of Russia’s few allies in its war against Ukraine.
