The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is reporting that the U.S. Treasury granted a sanctions exemption this summer to a Texas-based company seeking to do business with Russia's VTB Bank, despite previously labeling the bank a "critical artery" of Russia's financial system.
ICIJ said the exemption allowed Dynamic Frontier Holdings, managed by Russian-American businessman Konstantin Sokolov, to purchase one of Armenia's largest copper mines, Teghut, where VTB Bank was the primary shareholder and creditor. It said U.S. companies and individuals have been prohibited from transacting with the state-owned bank since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
ICIJ reported that the White House named Sokolov as one of three dozen private donors to President Donald Trump's $350 million ballroom project. It said Sokolov donated $11 million to MAGA Inc., a major pro-Trump super PAC, before 2025, after years as a modest political donor who gave $2,300 to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. ICIJ said he has since made several large donations to Republican causes and an undisclosed sum toward the ballroom.
A spokesperson for Sokolov confirmed to ICIJ that Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control granted a license to Dynamic Frontier to acquire Teghut's shares and debt, and said there was "no evidential basis" to link Sokolov's political donations to the license approval. Armenian parliamentarian Mesrop Manukyan said the deal raises "legitimate questions" about the separation between private commercial interest and decisions involving public or government-backed funds, ICIJ reported.
Separately, ICIJ said British lawmakers voiced concerns about Chinese ownership of U.K. water utilities and other key infrastructure following its China Capital investigation into state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, with partners worldwide scrutinizing similar deals.
ICIJ also reported that U.S. prosecutors have labeled Chinese tech giant Huawei a "criminal enterprise" in a federal trial in New York, alleging sanctions violations, while Huawei's lawyers reject the characterization, arguing "it's about competition, not conspiracy."
ICIJ said a U.S.-Venezuela oil deal has revived the profile of businessman Alejandro Betancourt, who is under investigation in Spain and Switzerland and whose company was flagged in its 2020 FinCEN Files. It also reported that Yorgen Fenech, heir to a Maltese property empire, was acquitted on all charges in the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and that the "Tinder Swindler" plans a dating app that the industry's lead trade group wants Apple and Google to block.