Oleg Diripaska gets rid of En + shares to avoid US sanctions

“Russian oligarch Oleg Diripaska agreed to sell 35 percent. shares of the En + group to free the company from the sanctions imposed in April 2018, ”writes the British newspaper Financial Times.

According to the proposal, which was passed to the US regulator, Oleg Diripaska will reduce his stake in En + from the current 70% to just below 45%, transferring the company's shares listed in London to the Russian bank WTB (VTB), which, after the lifting of sanctions, will sell them on the open market.

The document also presents a number of additional guarantees, including on the condition that the dividends received from En + shares will be deposited in escrow, that the oligarch will not have access.

At the same time, he assured that he would not use his vote against independent members of the En + board of directors, refusing to participate in the day-to-day management of the company.

In early April, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Rusal, its main shareholder Oleg Diripaska and seven other companies associated with the billionaire, including the En + group. On the Moscow Stock Exchange, the value of En + shares fell 16% on Monday.

Washington suspects Diripaska of money laundering, defrauding business partners, eavesdropping on government officials involved in extortion. En + and Rusal warned that the imposed sanctions threaten the functioning of both companies.

The final decision is still to be made by the US Treasury Department, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, but the diary notes that the plan presented is a "powerful concession" to the United States.