Samvel Karapetyan's Plane Removed from US Sanctions List

Businessman and founder of the Tashir Group, Samvel Karapetyan's business class jet has been removed from the list of U.S. sanctions. This was reported by Hetq.

Recall that in November 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) included the Maltese company Emperor Aviation on its sanctions list, along with eight business class aircraft operated by it, including the Gulfstream G650 jet owned by Karapetyan, which is registered in the Maltese aircraft registry as 9H-SSK.

Emperor Aviation was founded in 2013 by Georgian Irakli Litanishvili. The Maltese aviation company and its luxury aircraft, owned by various individuals, came under the scrutiny of U.S. authorities following the onset of the Russian-Ukrainian war. According to U.S. evaluations, Emperor Aviation had connections with the family of Suleiman Kerimov, a Dagestani billionaire close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In September 2022, OFAC had placed Suleiman Kerimov on its sanctions list based on his close ties with Russian authorities. The billionaire had previously appeared on the list in 2018. By November 2022, the sanctions had extended to adult members of Kerimov's family: his wife, Firuzai, daughters Gulnara and Amina, and son Said. The EU, UK, and Switzerland had also imposed sanctions on Said.

In addition, in November 2022, OFAC included four French companies owned by Gulnara Kerimova on its sanctions list, along with their Swiss manager and his Swiss company. However, the list did not stop there, as other individuals and companies linked to the Kerimovs also appeared on the U.S. list.

One of them was Emperor Aviation with its eight aircraft. On November 14, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that this company, which has offices in Malta and Russia, had facilitated luxury travel for Suleiman Kerimov's family members, including Gulnara, even after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The U.S. side did not specify which aircraft had provided services to the Kerimovs but noted that Emperor Aviation was placed on the sanctions list for its operations in the aviation segment of the Russian economy and for materially supporting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological aid to Gulnara Kerimova.

For more details, visit the source website.