FIDE President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Designated and Has Assets Frozen For Dealings With Syria

https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl0287.aspx


From the US Treasury Dept. press release,.

OFAC designated Mudalal Khuri today for materially assisting and acting for or on behalf of previously designated entities and individuals including the Government of Syria, Central Bank of Syria, Central Bank of Syria Governor Adib Mayaleh, and Central Bank of Syria official Batoul Rida.  OFAC designated Adib Mayaleh in July 2012 and Batoul Rida in March 2015.

 

Khuri has had a long association with the Assad regime and represents regime business and financial interests in Russia.  Khuri is linked to financial transactions in which the Government of Syria had an interest as early as 1994.  He also served as an intermediary between Batoul Rida and a Russian firm on an attempted procurement of ammonium nitrate in late 2013.  Khuri also owns or controls five of the entities designated today.

 

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was designated today for materially assisting and acting for or on behalf of the Government of Syria, Central Bank of Syria, Adib Mayaleh, and Batoul Rida.  Ilyumzhinov is a wealthy Russian businessman, former president of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia, and long-time World Chess Federation president.  He is linked to financial transactions involving Khuri-associated companies as early as 1997 and owns or controls the Russian Financial Alliance Bank, along with Khuri.  An advisor to Ilyumzhinov, then-President of Kalmykia, was convicted in Russia in 1999 for the murder of an opposition journalist who reportedly was investigating an offshore business registration mechanism in Kalmykia tied to Ilyumzhinov.  Russian authorities subsequently closed the offshore business registration mechanism after concluding that it was being used for illegal purposes.

 

OFAC designated Russian Financial Alliance Bank (RFA Bank) today for being owned or controlled by Khuri and Ilyumzhinov.  Khuri is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of RFA Bank, and Ilyumzhinov is a major shareholder of RFA Bank and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of RFA Bank.  At the time of his Chairmanship, Ilyumzhinov reportedly brought in his own representatives to the bank.