US court rejects Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska's appeal to lift sanctions placed on him in 2018

• Deripaska is alleged to have acted on behalf of a Russian official and has ties to the state energy sector.
• The oligarch challenged a 2021 ruling that dismissed a lawsuit he filed in response to sanctions.

Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska had an appeal to remove sanctions that the US placed on him in 2018 rejected, court documents show.

Deripaska was challenging a federal judge ruling from 2021, which dismissed a lawsuit the oligarch filed in response to the sanctions, Reuters reported.

The mogul, who founded the aluminum giant Rusal, faced sanctions following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea territory in 2014, due to ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to documents from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, a litany of Russian oligarchs have had their assets frozen, their overseas properties raided, and their yachts seized. Deripaska is not among the oligarchs sanctioned recently. But the sanctions from 2018 have "devastated" his wealth and business reputation, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The court said that Deripaska's reasoning that the sanctions are unlawful and lack merit.

"In short, there is no evidence that the government acted for reasons other than those it provided, much less that its stated reasons were contrived," the court's document stated.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Deripaska because he allegedly acted on behalf of a senior Russian official and because of his ties to the Russian state energy sector.

"Our review of the classified record confirms that OFAC had sufficient evidence for sanctions," the D.C. circuit concluded.

OFAC also notes that Deripaska has previously been investigated for money laundering, has bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman, and had ties to a Russian organized crime group.

A lawyer for the tycoon did not respond to Reuter's request for comment.

Last month, squatters occupied his London mansion in protest over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with the protesters saying they wanted to house Ukrainian refugees there.

Deripaska has spoken out against what Moscow has called a "special operation" in Ukraine.