Pelham attorney admits assisting sanctioned Russian oligarch

A Pelham attorney who helped a Russian oligarch manage his U.S. real estate has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Robert G. Wise surrendered to federal authorities on April 25 and agreed to forfeit $3,771,728 representing illegal funds he handled for the oligarch.

The oligarch is Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire who owns the Renova Group energy conglomerate and who was once ranked by Forbes as the 44th richest person in the world.

Vladimir Voronchenko, a childhood friend and business associate of Vekselberg who lived in the U.S., hired Wise around 2008 to manage Vekselberg’s properties.

Wise practiced from an office in Manhattan and frequently represented international clients “seeking advice on the purchase, sale and management of real estate matters,” according to a webpage that has since been taken down.

He began practicing law in New York in 1968 and he has no record of public discipline, according to the New York State Unified Court System attorney online services.

Vekselberg used shell companies to buy six luxury homes, including two apartments on Park Avenue, Manhattan, an estate in Southampton, and two apartments and a penthouse on Fisher Island, Florida.

The shell companies made about 90 wire transfers totaling $18.5 million to Wise’s attorney legal trust fund account from 2009 to 2018, according to court records, and Wise used the funds to maintain the properties.

In April 2018, the U.S. Treasury designated Vekselberg as a Specially Designated National. Unless authorized by the government, citizens are prohibited from dealing with him and he could no longer transfer funds or conduct business in the U.S.

Wise knew that Vekselberg had been sanctioned and that he owned the properties, according to court records, but he continued to assist the oligarch by receiving about 25 wire transfers totaling nearly $4 million from international accounts controlled by Voronchenko.

In June 2019, for instance, Smile Holding Ltd., a shell corporation in the Bahamas that Voronchenko controlled, wired about $150,000 to Wise’s attorney trust account for maintenance of the U.S. properties.

“Although the source of payments changed after the imposition of sanctions on Vekselberg,” according to a February indictment against Voronchenko, “the management of the payments remained the same as before.”

Voronchenko has since fled from the U.S.

Wise is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court, Manhattan, of Nov. 6. If he pays $210,441 to the government by the end of the year, the $3.7 million forfeiture will be considered satisfied.