A Miami real estate broker was convicted on money laundering charges for helping two sanctioned Russian oligarchs rent and sell luxury properties in Florida – the first time a US realtor has been held responsible under federal laws.
Roman Sinyavsky pleaded guilty earlier this month to conducting real estate transactions involving blocked properties owned by Vladimir Putin puppets Viktor Perevalov and Valeri Abramov.
The two oligarchs were first sanctioned in 2018 by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for owning a Russia-based construction firm that built a highway in the Russian-occupied Crimea region of Ukraine.
Perevalov was designated again by OFAC last December for operating in the construction sector of the Russian economy.
Nonetheless, the pair had managed to buy condos in the posh North Miami Beach town of Bal Harbour, as well as nearby Aventura.
According to the US Justice Department, Sinyavsky “conspired with others” from 2018 to 2023 to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and commit money laundering by “maintaining, transferring, selling, and leasing several luxury condominiums” that the oligarchs owned and collecting, sharing, and using the proceeds to maintain the properties.”
Sinyavsky was fined around $1.1 million and faces up to five years in jail when he is sentenced on April 11.
The first-of-its-kind conviction could help dissuade other brokers who have teamed with foreign drug lords, kleptocrats and other unseemly characters to wash their blood money through US real estate, according to crime and corruption expert Louise Shelley, the founder and executive director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center.
“I have never heard of anything like this before. I think it shows that professionals in this area who are aiding money laundering will now be held accountable for their actions,” said Shelley, who is also a professor at the Schar School of Policy and International Affairs at George Mason University.
“It’s a sector that has been overlooked in the anti-money laundering community. But there has been a policy shift. Professionals can now be held accountable — and with serious consequences.”
In the past, brokers have been subpoenaed by law enforcement to share information that can help convict the people accused of laundering money — but they were never convicted or investigated for the role they personally played.
“This is a wake-up call for brokers,” said one industry veteran who has previously been subpoenaed. “I can’t imagine this guy will ever have a broker’s license again. He’ll be flipping burgers.”
In its 2024 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment Report, the Treasury Department described real estate professionals as “a critical vulnerability” because of their role helping their clients launder money through real estate.
Last year, the Treasury’s financial crimes unit, known as FinCEN, also proposed a rule to stem dirty money through residential real estate by exposing people who buy properties in cash through trusts and other entities that hide their identities.
The investigation into Sinyavsky was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture
The US government seized two of the three properties and sold them for $1.8 million.
