Billionaire Suleiman Kerimov owned a stake in SpaceX through the Delaware-based company Heritage Trust since 2017, writes Bloomberg citing two former senior US national security officials. According to them, the trust initially owned about 1% of SpaceX shares. Moreover, it became a shareholder of SpaceX a year before being sanctioned by the US Treasury Department and remained so until 2022.
Citigroup Inc., which managed Heritage Trust, sought guidance from the Treasury Department and decided there was no need to block the trust and related entities after sanctions were imposed on Kerimov, and the trust continued its operations. Only four years later, in June 2022, the Treasury blocked the $1 billion trust after investigators uncovered a complex system of legal structures and frontmen created to conceal Kerimov's interests in the trust.
According to the agency's source, since the Treasury blocked Heritage Trust in 2022, authorities continue to discover new American companies in which the trust invested.
The funds that ended up in Heritage Trust first entered the US financial system through two foreign companies controlled by Kerimov before he was sanctioned, according to a Treasury statement from June 2022. These funds were then invested in "large public and private US companies" and managed by several American investment firms and intermediaries. "Kerimov and his trustees used various layers of American and non-American shell companies to have official ownership of the assets and conduct transactions in a way that concealed their interests," the Treasury stated at the time, without naming any parties.
For SpaceX, the status of a defense contractor with security clearance is associated with additional rules regarding investors. Such contractors must report foreign ownership, control, or influence of at least 5%, which is higher than the stake Heritage Trust had in SpaceX.
According to Royal Reff, a representative of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, which reviews and manages national security clearances, companies would still need to report "suspicious contacts" if a sanctioned individual invests in the company. Companies with security clearances are required to provide information in good faith, added Reff.
The US previously sanctioned Kerimov in April 2018, freezing his assets and prohibiting American transactions with him as part of the Trump administration's broad actions to hold Russian officials and oligarchs accountable for allegedly ill-gotten gains from corruption and external aggression. In September 2022, the Treasury sanctioned the entire Russian senate, including Kerimov, for approving Putin's request to deploy troops to Ukraine and providing an "unjustified pretext" for a full-scale invasion.
The European Union also sanctioned Kerimov in 2022, calling him part of the inner circle of oligarchs close to Putin.
Photo: RIA Novosti