Dealings around an Aspen luxury home under the alleged ownership of a sanctioned Russian banker are set to come under the scrutiny of a federal jury at a trial this summer in New York.
The trial is scheduled to begin Monday, June 16, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. That’s the venue where two men are accused of transferring funds to hide the home’s ownership by a Russian oligarch sanctioned by the United States in 2018 and forbidden to possess property on American soil. The home is located in the North Star Preserve subdivision.
The defendants set to stand trial are Gannon Bond, an Edgewater, New Jersey, resident and American citizen who allegedly worked as a personal assistant for another defendant, Russian national Vadim Wolfson, who has legal residency in the U.S. and lives in Austin, Texas. Both are charged with two counts of violating and one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The trial will come after a federal grand jury in New York indicted the two, along with the case’s primary figure and said oligarch — Andrey Kostin, president and chairman of Russian state-owned VTB Bank — in February 2024. Kostin faces the same three charges against Bond and Wolfson, and an additional count of conspiracy to violate IEEPA and one count of conspiracy to commit international money laundering.
Though Gannon and Wolfson also were arrested in February 2024 and went on to plead not guilty to the charges, Kostin remains at large but maintains a public profile: He gave an interview to CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, broadcast in March, stating in English that Russia relations with the U.S. “were ruined in the last few years. So to restore them will take time. But what we definitely see, I think, it’s a really good intention and sincere intention on the part of the President Trump and the will to help Russia resolve this issue, to restore Russian-American relationship.”
Kostin went on to address U.S. sanctions against Russian concerns, arguing that “the financial sector, that’s the area that shouldn’t be weaponized, that should be free from any political influence, otherwise it will undermine substantially the trust and increase the risk. … I think we should be very cautious in trying to use sanctions.”
U.S. economic sanctions began pouring down on Russian oligarchs, industry captains and companies in late March 2014, after the country invaded and annexed Crimea. In July 2014, OFAC sanctioned VTP Bank, the one run by Kostin.
OFAC, which stands for Office of Foreign Assets Control and is run under the U.S. Treasury Department, sanctioned Kostin on April 6, 2018, placing him on its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons because of his executive role with the state-owned VTP Bank.
“Kostin was, consequently, blocked from owning property or transacting business in the United States,” noted U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods in a written memorandum and opinion dated April 4.
The opinion added that individuals “inside the United States are also prohibited from ‘dealing’ in the property of an SDN, and from engaging in transactions that benefit any SDN living abroad, unless otherwise authorized.”
That’s where Wolfson comes into play. The indictment alleges that from at least April 6, 2018, which is the date Kostin was sanctioned, through September 2019, which is when the Aspen home’s ownership was transferred, Wolfson acted as Kostin’s handler and violated the sanctions in effect. He did so by operating and maintaining the home and by arranging the transaction to transfer its ownership for $12 million, according to the allegations.
Woods noted that the government “expects that one of the key factual disputes between the parties at trial will be who owned the Aspen home and when. Indeed, the defendants and their co-conspirators used sophisticated and intricate ownership structures for this very reason: to hide assets, conceal ownership, and evade sanctions.”
On the other hand, “Mr. Wolfson presents an alternative narrative,” the judge’s memo and opinion said. “He argues that he purchased the Aspen home from Mr. Kostin in 2014 — before any sanctions — using a legitimate loan that he borrowed from Capital Business Finance, which he understood to be an ordinary lender.”
Bond, the second defendant, allegedly was the house’s main contact and Wolfson’s personal assistant.
According to the Pitkin County Assessor’s Office’s website, the North Star Circle property has a main home with seven beds and nine baths totaling 11,063 square feet, along with a 1,467-square-foot guest house. The property has an actual value of $30.7 million, according to the office.
Evidence suppression argument
Written pleadings provide an account of some of the legal arguments ahead of the trial.
Unresolved matters include the defendants’ motion for a judge to preclude the government from presenting evidence about how some of Kostin’s luxury assets are managed and evidence containing some of Kostin’s close and confidential associates’ contact information. The defense singles out the government’s plan to present evidence of Kostin’s yachts, arguing that the perceived lavishness would unduly prejudice a jury against Bond and Wolfson.
“No such appeals to class prejudice will occur here,” the government said in a motion filed April 11, adding Kostin’s ownership of “other assets using shell entities, nominee straw owners, and the assistance of specific trusted co-conspirators is not any more inflammatory than the conduct at issue with respect to the charged [defendants] regarding the Aspen home.”
Additionally, the defense wants the court to ban the government’s use of potentially loaded words as they relate to the allegations. They are asking for the court to prohibit the government’s use of such words in trials as “shell,” “front,” “sham,” “tax haven” and “similarly unfairly prejudicial terms.”
In an April 11 filing, the government argued back, “As the Indictment returned by the grand jury alleges and as the Government expects the evidence at trial will show, there is an ample factual basis for the challenged terms. As alleged in the Indictment, for years, beginning by at least in or about 2010 and including through the time period charged in the Indictment, Kostin used various shell companies, nominal owners, and trusted associates — including Wolfson (and three confidential associates) —to obscure and conceal his ownership of various assets, including his ownership of the Aspen home.”
