Representative Malinowski and Wilson Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Use Assets of Putin’s Cronies to Help Ukraine

(Washington, DC) Today, Representatives Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) and Joe Wilson (R-SC) introduced a bipartisan bill to seize and repurpose assets from oligarchs whose wealth is linked to the corruption of Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime.

The legislation authorizes the administration to confiscate any property – including luxury villas, yachts, and airplanes – valued over $5 million from Russian oligarchs previously sanctioned by the U.S. government for their involvement in the Kremlin’s invasion and human rights violations in Ukraine. Any funds gained from asset sales must then be used to benefit the Ukrainian people, through the provision of military and humanitarian assistance, post-conflict reconstruction, and technology to ensure the free flow of information in Ukraine.

Full text of the bill can be found here.

“It would be fitting and right to use the wealth that supported Putin’s regime to rebuild the country Putin is destroying,” said Representative Malinowski. “The Ukrainian people should see the boats, planes, and villas of Putin’s enablers being seized and sold, and they should know that the proceeds will help their country and cause.”

“Those who have accumulated great wealth and influence under Vladimir Putin and off the backs of the Russian people should not be able to hide their assets in the Unites States while Putin commits atrocities against the Ukrainian people. Putin has chosen mafia rule, and the global community must respond accordingly. I am grateful to work with my colleagues to impose additional costs on Putin and his cronies and to fortify our democratic institutions against kleptocracy,” said Representative Wilson.

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Original cosponsors of the bill include Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Peter Meijer (R-MI), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Jim Banks (R-IN), Susan Wild (D-PA), Young Kim (R-CA), Dan Kildee (D-MI), and John Curtis (R-UT). Representatives Malinowski, Wilson, Spanberger, Meijer, Cohen, and Curtis are all members of the Congressional Caucus against Foreign Corruption and Kleptocracy, a bipartisan grouping of members of Congress that has led the successful passage of several pieces of anti-corruption legislation through the House of Representatives, including the Justice for Victims of Kleptocracy Act, the Combating Global Corruption Act, measures to sanction Russian kleptocrats, the Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention Act and the Foreign Corruption Accountability Act. The caucus also seeks to tighten US controls against money laundering through the Enablers Act and to ensure Russian kleptocrats are frozen out of the US financial system (CORRUPT Act).