The son of an English business and political dynasty served as bag man for one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, according to U.S. officials who collared the Brit on his native soil on Tuesday.
The Department of Justice’s KleptoCapture unit—which President Joe Biden launched shortly after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in March—nabbed Graham Bonham-Carter for allegedly conducting more than $1 million in real estate and artwork dealings on behalf of notorious oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who the U.S. personally sanctioned in 2018.
A message sent by The Daily Beast to an email account associated with Bonham-Carter’s LinkedIn page received no answer Tuesday. The page innocuously describes Bonham-Carter’s job as director of GBCM Ltd., a “company set up to run private houses and estates.”
But the feds allege Bonham-Carter, the descendant of famed British bankers and political leaders, incorporated GBCM shortly after the sanctions hit on explicit orders from Deripaska, who he deferentially referred to in private correspondence as his “boss.” In the past four years, the government asserts, Bonham-Carter illegally funneled six-figures-worth of cash from a Russian bank account in the company’s name to another entity in the United States, which used the cash to maintain the tycoon’s multiple homes in the United States.
Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s Empty Mansion Haunts D.C.’s Splendor
The Department of Justice further alleges that in 2020 and early 2021, Bonham-Carter attempted to ship artwork he had previously purchased on Deripaska’s behalf from a New York City auction facility to London, while misrepresenting the piece’s true ownership—thus engaging in wire fraud.
Throughout, the feds assert that personal communications and internal paperwork show Bonham-Carter was fully aware of the true ownership of the funds and assets he handled, and of the tightening strictures on Deripaska’s activities.
Bonham-Carter now faces as much as 20 years in prison. The authorities have further ordered him to cough up all proceeds from his alleged crimes.
Bonham-Carter’s great-grandfather was General Sir Charles Bonham-Carter, the governor of the then-colony of Malta—and the brother of businessman and politician Sir Maurice Bonham-Carter, the grandfather of Fight Club and Sweeney Todd actor Helena Bonham-Carter. The family’s roots run back to 18th and 19th century Parliamentarian John Bonham-Carter, and the family has played a prominent role in British public and financial life for generations.
Bonham-Carter’s arrest followed federal raids on Deripaska’s properties in Florida in New York last month, and the freezing of the Englishman’s bank accounts in March.
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