FBI agents conducted what authorities are terming as a
“law enforcement activity” on Tuesday at a house belonging to a
Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska in Washington, DC. The billionaire is
said to have close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to a report by CBS News, the FBI’s search of
Deripaska’s house was part of an ongoing investigation in New York.

Deripaska came into the limelight during former special
counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016
presidential election. This was due to his links to the former chairman of
President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign Paul Manafort.

Manafort was one of several charged as part of Mueller’s
probe for his consulting work in Ukraine, according to CBS News. Documents that
surfaced during federal court proceedings in the case against Manafort pursued
by the US Department of Justice case revealed that Deripaska had provided a $10
million loan to Manafort in 2005.

Deripaska is an aluminum magnate. Several companies that are
controlled by him were also hit with sanctions by the Trump administration along
with a group of more than three dozen Russian officials and entities in 2018. He
was sanctioned for “having acted or purported to act for or on behalf
of” a senior Russian government official, as well as for his work in
Russia’s energy sector, CBS News quoted the Treasury Department as saying in
2018.

According to the Treasury Department statement at the time, Deripaska
was accused of giving life threats to business rivals, illegal wiretapping of a
government official, and participating in extortion and racketeering along with investigations
for money laundering. The Trump administration had also alleged that Deripaska
“bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman and
had links to a Russian organised crime group.”

The Trump administration ended the sanctions on three
companies connected to Deripaska despite a Congressional attempt to block the
move ended in a failure.