A commentator for Russian state television and former adviser to Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign has been charged by the US Department of Justice with various schemes to violate sanctions, including laundering funds through the acquisition of art and antiques. In one of the two indictments unsealed on 5 September, Dimitri Simes and his wife Anastasia Simes allegedly laundered money through Channel One Russia, a state-owned TV station. In a second indictment, Anastasia, who designs jewellery, has been accused of helping a prominent businessman, Aleksandr Y. Udodov, circumvent US sanctions by purchasing art and antiques on his behalf and storing the items at her home in Huntly, Virginia.
According to the Department of Justice, the Simeses have allegedly participated in these activities since early June of 2022, receiving $1m, a personal car and driver, a stipend for an apartment in Moscow and a personal team of ten employees from Channel One Russia. The couple has been charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a federal law passed in the late 1970s that US President Joseph Biden has used to enforce punitive embargoes on Russian goods during Putin’s war in Ukraine. The couple’s combined sentences could carry a maximum penalty of 240 years in federal prison.
Cracking down on Russian influence
The Simeses' indictments are the latest example of the Biden administration cracking down on Russian efforts to influence American voters through undisclosed telecommunications campaigns (and circumvent sanctions imposed on Russian individuals and organisations in connection to Russia's war in Ukraine). On 3 September, two employees of a Russian state broadcaster, RT, were charged with spending upwards of $10m to plant pro-Russian messages in a right-wing Tennessee-based podcasting company’s content.
F.C. Welsch, Lake of the Four Cantons, 19th century
The FBI raided the Simes home on 13 August, seizing art and furniture over the course of four days. “They took a lot of the furniture," Dmitri said in an interview with The New York Times. “They took practically all of the paintings and icons, which are where now—who knows?”
Various pieces of art were named in the indictment against Dimitri, who is now in Russia, including Lake of the Four Cantons, a 19th-century painting by the German artist F.C. Welsch, and a statue of the Ancient Greek goddess Minerva by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the French sculptor best known for designing the Statue of Liberty.
Minerva, by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi Via US Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs
“We got most of them before we moved to this house,” Dimitri told the Times. “Most of them belonged to our parents. How could they be of any concern to the US government?”
Dimitri emigrated to the US in 1973, becoming an advisor to President Richard Nixon before serving as the head of a think tank called Center for the National Interest. During President Trump’s 2016 campaign, Dimitri introduced the candidate at an event, a choice that raised eyebrows among some Washington officials due to concerns about Russia's campaign to interfere in the US presidential election.
Dimitri disputed the Biden administration’s allegations, telling the Times: “I assumed that what I was saying on Russian TV would not be to the liking of the Biden administration, [...] but I also assumed that as long as it was just my opinion and was presented as such, it was not something for which I could be prosecuted.”