Russian businessman Artem Uss, son of Krasnoyarsk Territory Governor Alexander Uss, escaped house arrest from an apartment in Milan. It is possible that he left Italy. In October last year Uss was arrested on an international warrant and in March 2023 a court in Milan decided to extradite the Russian to the United States. The US Department of Justice accuses Uss of sanctions evasion, money laundering and oil smuggling.
How did the breakout happen?
According to the publications ANSA And La Stampa , in the afternoon of March 22, Artem Uss broke an electronic bracelet and fled from his apartment in the municipality of Cascina Vione di Basiglio, where he was to be under house arrest, he is wanted by the Italian police . “It is likely that the 40-year-old has already left Italy. Possibly on a private flight from Linate (airport). <...> At the moment, it is impossible to exclude the involvement of the special services of Moscow in facilitating the escape, ”- writing Corriere della Sera, without specifying the source of the information.
The Press via ZUMA Press/TASS
At the press service of the Milan Carabinieri Department RIA Novosti declared that, most likely, Uss is still in Italian territory. “We have no evidence that he left Italian territory. Objective information suggests that he escaped house arrest by removing the electronic bracelet,” the press officer said.
On March 21, a Milan appeals court approved Uss’s extradition to the United States, where he faces up to 30 years in prison for sanctions violations, money laundering and smuggling. Uss’ attorney said the defense plans to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court within 15 days. Under Italian law, the Minister of Justice makes the final decision on extradition. How Remarks TASS, the minister’s decision may not coincide with the court’s verdict.
Artem Uss was arrested in October 2022 at Milan Malpensa Airport on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by the New York District Attorney. The entrepreneur himself declared his innocence and asked to be transferred to Russia.
On the morning of Wednesday March 22, Ussa received a visit from the carabinieri at his home, then he was at home, writes the newspaper Corriere della Sera. Later, Uss somehow removed the electronic bracelet, shortly after 2 p.m. the alarm went off, to which the carabinieri responded. When they arrived, the door to Uss’ apartment was closed and the television was on inside. When they broke down the door, Uss was no longer in the apartment, the newspaper cites the circumstances of the Russian’s escape.
One of Uss’ lawyers in Italy informed in a conversation with Bloomberg that his whereabouts are still unknown. “We can confirm that Artem Uss escaped and we are shocked by that,” the lawyer said.
Krasnoyarsk Territory Governor Alexander Uss said he did not know where his son was and was not aware of the details of what happened. According to the governor, the son said that the apartment in which he was under house arrest was very carefully guarded by carabinieri. The governor pointed out that Artyom Uss “was even visited several times at night.” “It was happening periodically, so I have absolutely no idea how it could have disappeared from there,” he added.
“I don’t know what fate Mr. Uss will have. I hope that somehow he will get home, but overall there is no reason to talk about anything in terms of exchanges”, – said March 22, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. “We have always fought and will continue to fight for every citizen of the Russian Federation, providing consular assistance, protecting their interests by all available means. This, of course, also applies to Mr. Uss,” he added. Ryabkov’s statements were made before news of Uss’ escape was published.
What is Uss accused of?
In the United States, Artem Uss, along with four other Russians (Yuri Orekhov, Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, Timofey Telegin and Sergey Tulyakov) and two Venezuelan citizens, were charged with evading sanctions and money laundering, should from US Department of Justice documents. Orekhov was detained in Munich.
Illegal export to Russia of dual-use and military goods
According to the indictment, Uss and Orekhov are co-founders of the German company NDA Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH. This company was allegedly used for activities prohibited by US law – the purchase of equipment for Russian military needs and the purchase of Venezuelan oil.
Orekhov and three Russians are said to be involved in the purchase of equipment – Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, Timofey Telegin and Sergey Tulyakov. Telegin and Tulyakov told Orekhov what kind of products to buy in the United States, and Kuzurgasheva was Orekhov’s assistant and an employee of NDA GmbH.
Oleg Kharseev / Kommersant
Presumably, the Russians bought the American technology through the Malaysian company NDA Aerospace and NDA GmbH, hiding the real purpose of these purchases – the transfer of technology to the Russian military-industrial complex. Among the components Orekhov and other Russians have bought from American companies are advanced semiconductors and microprocessors used in fighter jets, ballistic and hypersonic missile systems, smart munitions, radars and satellites . Some of the technology purchased was found in Russian weapons used during the conflict in Ukraine, according to the US Department of Justice.
Among the Russian companies where US technologies have been shipped, the US Department of Justice cites Radioexport, Network Technologies and Abtroniks. Orekhov and his alleged accomplices have also told their US partners that part of the products they buy will be used for Roscosmos needs, since this is not prohibited by the US sanctions regime. In reality, the equipment purchased by the Russians served military needs.
The acquisition of US technologies in circumvention of sanctions continued from 2018 to February 2022.
Venezuelan oil smuggling
Uss, Orekhov and two Venezuelan citizens are also suspected of dealing with Venezuelan oil – buying fuel from the undersanctioned Venezuelan company PDVSA and transporting it to Chinese and Russian companies, including via NDA GmbH. It is assumed that the purchases were made under the leadership of a Russian businessman, whose name is not called. The businessman became interested in buying Venezuelan oil because of its cheapness in the face of US sanctions that make it difficult for PDVSA to work. US embargo on Venezuelan oil valid since April 2019.
Documents from the US Department of Justice indicate that the Russian businessman owned an aluminum business that was on the US sanctions list from April 6, 2018 to January 27, 2019. This coincides with the dates of inclusion and subsequent exclusion from the US sanctions list of the Russian steel company Rusal. In the company itself, involvement in the transactions with Venezuelan oil described in the Ussa case, refuted .
Ernesto Vargas/AP
As the conclusion of the US Department of Justice shows, Orekhov and Uss were engaged in “hundreds of millions of dollars of oil smuggling”, and among the end users of the oil was an unnamed aluminum company (and its business in Guinea), as well as China’s largest state-owned oil, gas and petrochemical refining conglomerates. According to the US side, from February to April 2022, Orekhov and Uss purchased approximately 697,000 barrels of oil from PDVSA for approximately $32.9 million. Part of these funds were transferred to Venezuelan partners in cash in dollars and in cryptocurrency (USDT).
On October 28, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow announced that Artem Uss had been arrested in absentia for money laundering as part of a large-scale organized group. The entrepreneur was put on the wanted list, and in Russia they are trying to extradite him to his home country, transmitted TASS, citing a law enforcement source. “Kommersant” writing that Russia thus wants to intercept Uss from the United States. It was with the aim of obtaining his extradition to his native country that “a criminal case was hastily opened against the businessman, and his arrest was sanctioned by the court”, specifies the newspaper.
Commenting on the detention of Yury Orekhov and Artem Uss in Italy at the request of the United States in Germany on October 20, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called what happened “the continuation of a large-scale campaign launched by Washington to capture the Russians, to whom there are “claims”, for their subsequent conviction guaranteed by American punitive justice for long prison terms.”
What do we know about Artem Uss and his father
Artem Uss is 40 years old. In 2004 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Siberian Federal University, four years later – from MGIMO. From November 2014 to July 2019, he was the owner of the real estate purchase and sale company Siberian Land, and was also a co-owner of SM.City, a financial services company, and Novy Gorod. In 2020, in an interview with author Alexei Pivovarov*’s YouTube channel “Edition”, Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Uss said that his son “is the beneficiary of a small coal mine”, which produces about 2 million tons of lignite.
Alexander UssAlexander Shcherbak / TASS
According to SPARK-Interfax, Artem Uss owns 38.7% of Sibugol, he also East one of the founders of the company. How writing “Kommersant”, the company’s customers were the administrations of the city of Sorsk, the Priiskovy village council and the Ordzhonikidzevsky district of the Republic of Khakassia, as well as the Balakhtinskaya district hospital and the institution municipal budget “Combine Improvement” in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In 2019, associates of Alexei Navalny claimed Artem Uss co-owns a company that runs two hotels in Italy, San Diego and Don Diego.
Alexander Uss became governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory on September 21, 2018. Previously, he acted temporarily – from September 29, 2017 to September 21, 2018. Member of the United Russia party. At the end of 2018, Alexander Uss was recognized as the richest Russian governor. In 2021, he declared an income of 19.3 million rubles, and his wife – 20.7 million rubles. The couple owns a property with an area of 300,000 square meters.
In 2017, Alexander Uss officially declared an income of 221 million rubles. The state of an official until 2020 was, according to various estimates, 1.5-2 billion rubles, which automatically made him one of the richest governors.
- included in the Unified Register of Foreign Agents of the Ministry of Justice of Russia
