The world began hunting for the assets of Russian oligarchs: how many of them are in the USA

Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, several Western governments have begun punishing Russia's richest men, the oligarchs who made billions of dollars doing business with President Vladimir Putin's government. Yahoo News.

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Government officials, media CEOs and business tycoons who have grown their fortunes in Putin's Russia are all facing scrutiny, sanctions and asset freezes from governments around the world.

But keeping track of the wealth of Russia's ruling class is no easy task. It is associated with large enterprises, institutions and land scattered around the world.
It is difficult to even get a full report on the foreign investments of Russian oligarchs, but forensic records and analysis allow us to draw some conclusions.

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The Atlantic Council estimates that $1 trillion of Russian “shadow money” is hidden in countries and businesses around the world. Meanwhile, according to estimates by the National Bureau of Economic Research, 60% of the wealth of the richest Russians is outside the country.

All figures are approximate, because it is difficult to collect exact numbers. The Russian oligarchs' money is invested in various ways, and the sums are staggering. However, looking back over the past few decades, the long list of examples shows just how many areas dirty money covers, from sports to tourism to technology.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought English Premier League football club Chelsea in 2003 for about $90 million. The club is now worth billions. Last week, the UK government froze Abramovich's assets, meaning ownership of the club is in limbo. On the European continent, Russian Alexei Mordashov was the largest shareholder in the German travel giant TUI, with a stake worth about $1,4 billion.

There are also investments in the USA. Oleg Deripaska of Russia pledged $200 million to build an aluminum smelter in Kentucky in 2019 but put the investment on hold last year. Meanwhile, in 2016, Mikhail Fridman invested $200 million in the world's most valuable private startup, Uber. In 2019, he sold his shares.

And these are just a few high-profile investments. Of course, there are many others that are much harder to track down.

In addition to business, the oligarchs have real estate holdings around the world. If you are a billionaire and travel, why not travel in style? But the property owned by the oligarchs is more than just pied-à-terre—it's an investment.

An article published in Forbes this month pointed to 62 properties owned by 13 Russian oligarchs worth about $2,5 billion.

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Abramovich has real estate in Aspen, Colorado; France; St. Barts in the Caribbean; and the UK, worth about $620 million, the magazine reports. Andrey Melnichenko owns real estate in New York, France, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland and the UK worth $400 million. Alisher Usmanov owns $250 million in real estate in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco and Italy.

In fact, Russian real estate investments are so scattered that it is almost impossible to find them all. Search the internet and you'll find stories of oligarchs owning real estate in Miami, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Washington.

And with all this money and all this spending, the Russian oligarchs have established connections with some well-known and powerful institutions in the US.
According to the database, MIT has received at least $900 in donations from Russian oligarchs. New York University has raised over $000 million. Brandeis University received over 4 million.

In Washington, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has received over $5 million from the Russian billionaire class. According to the database, Mayo Clinic has raised at least $1 million.

And this does not indicate the influence of the oligarchs, said David Szaugni, one of the co-founders of the Anti-Corruption Data Collective. The group is aware of dozens of cases of gifts and donations, but it is impossible to know exactly how many.

This is true for many investments by Russian oligarchs. Billionaires are not new to the scene. And as their wealth grew, it became harder to track. Walk down the street in a major city today and you might walk past a property or business owned by one of them, or an institution to which one of them donated a tidy sum.

There may be a strong desire to punish the billionaires who have benefited from the Putin regime in Moscow, but this desire will not be easy to fulfill.

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