- The FBI and Homeland Security agents in the US have searched properties linked to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.
- A company part-owned by Vekselberg has made two recorded donations to the ANC - one of R5 million and another of R10 million.
- It was not immediately clear what the agents were investigating. Vekselberg has not been criminally charged in the United States.
US law enforcement agents on Thursday searched New York properties linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a sanctioned billionaire Russian oligarch, NBC New York reported, as Washington seeks to use sanctions and property seizures to pressure Moscow to stop its invasion of Ukraine.
A Reuters witness observed FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents haul boxes and safes out of an apartment building at 515 Park Avenue in Manhattan, where NBC said a property linked to Vekselberg was located.
Agents also searched a Vekselberg-linked property in Southampton, New York, NBC said.
The ANC's sole donation in the final quarter of the 2021-'22 financial year came from a company part-owned by Vekselberg, which contributed R10 million to the cash-strapped party. The previous year, the company donated R5 million to the party.
Manganese mining company United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK) is the fourth-largest producer of manganese ore in the country with a balance sheet north of R2.5 billion
UMK's riches and its Russian connections potentially create a strong motive for the party's equivocation on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, amaBhungane previously reported.
Vekselberg could not be reached for comment.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed that agents were present at the Manhattan and Southampton addresses, but declined to comment further.
An HSI spokesperson declined to comment.
It was not immediately clear what the agents were investigating. Vekselberg has not been criminally charged in the United States.
Washington imposed sanctions on Vekselberg in 2018 over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election, and in 2022, over his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin denies interfering in the election and calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation".
Vekselberg owns the Renova group of companies, which operates in Russia's energy sector, according to the Treasury Department, which enforces sanctions.
Russian prosecutors arrested two Vekselberg associates in 2016 for bribing officials connected to a power generation project, the department said.
In April, Spanish police impounded Vekselberg's superyacht Tango at the behest of US prosecutors, who had obtained a warrant to seize the vessel.
They accused Vekselberg of obfuscating his ownership of Tango, and tricking US banks into processing transactions for it.
The yacht has since been moored off Palma on the Spanish island of Mallorca, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel tracking data.