Two Florida steel traders sentenced for money laundering and russia-Ukraine sanctions violations

President of Metalhouse LLC Sentenced to Six Years in Prison and $160 Million Forfeiture. Co-Conspirator Sentenced to 21 Months in Prison and $4.7 Million Forfeiture.

John Can Unsalan, aka Hurrem Can Unsalan, the president of Orlando, Florida-based steel trading firm Metalhouse LLC, was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering to promote violations of U.S. sanctions against Sergey Kurchenko, a pro-russian Ukrainian oligarch. Unsalan’s former business associate, Sergey Karpushkin, a Belarusian national residing in Miami, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in the scheme. Unsalan pleaded guilty and was ordered to forfeit $160 million in proceeds from the offense. Karpushkin pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and to commit international promotional money laundering and was ordered to forfeit $4.7 million in criminal proceeds.

Kurchenko was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in 2015 for his role in misappropriating state assets of Ukraine or of an economically significant entity in Ukraine. Two sanctioned companies – Kompaniya Gaz-Alyans OOO, based in the russian federation and controlled by Kurchenko, and ZAO Vneshtorgservis, based in the russian occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia – were designated by OFAC in 2018 for acting on behalf of and providing material support to the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in the separatist-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine.

As set forth in court filings, Unsalan and Karpushkin engaged in trade with these sanctioned individuals and entities to procure steelmaking equipment and raw material despite knowing that Kurchenko, Gaz-Alyans and Vneshtorgservis were subject to U.S. sanctions that prohibited U.S. persons and entities from doing business with them. No licenses from OFAC were applied for or issued for these payments or transfers.

The investigation was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls and economic countermeasures that the United States, along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine. Announced by the Attorney General on March 2, 2022, and under the leadership of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the task force will continue to leverage all of the department’s tools and authorities to combat efforts to evade or undermine the collective actions taken by the U.S. government in response to russian military aggression.

Source: Office of Public Affairs