How Western Firms Quietly Enabled Russian Oligarchs

Mr. Clare said this week that his firm, Clare Locke, hadn’t worked for Mr. Deripaska since September, “and we do not foresee doing so again in the future.”

Russian companies like Rosneft, VTB, Alfa Bank, Gazprom and Sberbank, which are now under sanctions, have been represented by leading U.S. law firms including White Case, DLA Piper, Dechert, Latham Watkins and Baker Botts.

None of those firms would say whether they were still working with the Russian companies.

Baker McKenzie, one of the world’s largest law firms, continues to say on its website that it represents “some of Russia’s largest companies,” including Gazprom and VTB. The firm said it was “reviewing and adjusting our Russia-related operations and client work” to comply with sanctions.

In Washington, Erich Ferrari, a leading sanctions lawyer, is suing the Treasury on behalf of Mr. Deripaska, who is seeking to overturn sanctions imposed on him in 2018 that he claims have cost him billions of dollars and made him “radioactive” in international business circles.

And the lobbyist Robert Stryk said he had recently had conversations about representing several Russian oligarchs and companies currently under sanctions. He previously represented clients targeted by sanctions, including the administrations of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and former President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mr. Stryk said he would consider taking the work if the Treasury Department provided him with the necessary licenses, and if the prospective clients opposed Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/business/russian-oligarchs-money-concord.html