WASHINGTON – The Justice Department has charged a contributor to Russia’s state-run Channel One channel and his wife with violating US sanctions and money laundering.
The indictment, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia and unsealed, accuses 76-year-old Dmitry Simes and his wife Anastasia Simes of participating in a scheme to violate US sanctions for the benefit of a Russian state-controlled broadcasting and television channel. money laundering through that scheme.
Although the Simes have a home in Huntly, Virginia, the Justice Department said they “remain alive and are believed to be in Russia.” The FBI raided their home in Virginia in August. Dmitry Simes advised Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign and his name appears repeatedly in the report compiled by special counsel Robert Mueller About the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The indictment states that Dmitry Simes is a dual US-Russian citizen and last left the US in late October 2022. It is reported that his wife is also a dual US-Russian citizen, who last entered the US in February and returned to Russia. April.
They were each charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, violating the act, and conspiracy to commit international money laundering. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the Justice Department said.
After the United States imposed sanctions on Channel One Russia in May 2022, Dmitri Simes, who had been working for the broadcaster since around that June, continued to provide services to it, including hosting and producing a television program called “The Television.” Big Game for the channel, prosecutors say. The indictment alleges that he took more than $1 million from the broadcaster after being sanctioned.
The Justice Department also said Simes received an apartment in Moscow, a personal driver and car, and a stipend for a team of 10 employees from the broadcaster. He also said Russia used funds from Channel One to buy property in the United States
The indictment states that the couple admitted that Channel One Russia was sanctioned by the United States and that they did not receive permission from the federal government to continue working there.
NBC News has reached out to Simes for comment on the allegations.
In a second indictment, federal prosecutors accused Anastasia Sims of violating US sanctions by obtaining funds from sanctioned oligarch Alexander Yevgenyevich Udodov, who benefited from the scheme.
The charges come a day later The Biden administration has announced a series of measures against Russia’s latest attempts to influence US public opinion ahead of the November general elections. The moves include charges against two employees of the Russian-backed media network RT, as well as sanctions.