NEW YORK (AP) — A former CNBC and Fox Information worker has been arrested in London for his paintings as a tv manufacturer for a Russian media baron tied to aggression in Ukraine during the last 8 years, in particular in Crimea, U.S. prosecutors introduced Thursday.
Jack Hanick, 71, often referred to as “John,” used to be arrested in London on Feb. 3 in what U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams described because the first-ever felony indictment charging a contravention of U.S. sanctions as a result of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Hanick’s legal professionals in New York and London didn’t right away reply to a request for remark. If he’s effectively extradited, the sanctions rate carries a possible penalty of as much as twenty years in jail.
Williams mentioned Hanick labored for years for Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev — the founding father of a Russian Orthodox information channel, Tsargrad TV — even after U.S. sanctions banned U.S. voters from running for or doing industry with him.
“The Justice Division will do the entirety it could actually to stamp out Russian aggression and interference,” Assistant Lawyer Normal Matthew G. Olsen mentioned in a information unlock.
Olsen mentioned that when Malofeyev used to be sanctioned for threatening Ukraine and offering monetary strengthen to the Donetsk separatist area, Hanick “knowingly selected to lend a hand Malofeyev unfold his destabilizing messages by way of organising, or making an attempt to determine, TV networks in Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece, in violation of the ones sanctions.”
An indictment returned in Big apple federal courtroom alleged that Hanick labored at once for and for the advantage of Malofeyev from a minimum of 2013 via a minimum of 2017.
Consistent with his LinkedIn web page, Hanick labored as a director for CNBC for over a 12 months in 1995 ahead of becoming a member of the Fox Information Channel as a director from July 1996 to August 2011. He mentioned he used to be at the channel’s “start-up staff.”
A Fox Information spokesperson declined remark. CNBC didn’t right away reply to a message searching for remark.
Malofeyev used to be designated for sanctions in December 2014 by way of the U.S. Treasury Division, which mentioned he used to be probably the most major resources of financing for Russians selling separatism in Crimea.
In an October 2015 article within the Monetary Occasions Mag, Malofeyev, however spelled “Malofeev,” by way of some English-language information retailers, mentioned hiring Hanick to lend a hand release Tsargrad TV as a result of he admired Fox Information and sought after to position a “conservative but fashionable spin on world information.”
Malofeyev and Hanick met after they had been audio system at a Moscow convention on morality within the media. Each are religious Christians.
“He gave the impression of an excessively humble man. I had no concept he had a large number of energy or political pull. I’m nonetheless now not positive what he has,” Maloffeyev informed the Monetary Occasions in 2015.
Of Putin, he used to be quoted as calling him “a ancient chief, the most efficient that Russia has had in 100 years, since ahead of the revolution. We were given very fortunate.”
Prosecutors mentioned that once FBI brokers interviewed Hanick about his paintings for Malofeyev, he made false statements.
In 2015, Hanick authored an opinion piece for The New York Observer caution {that a} battle between Washington and Moscow used to be at the horizon and pronouncing Russia’s standpoint used to be in large part overlooked by way of American citizens.
He defended Russia’s profession of Crimea, assailed U.S. sanctions as a mistake, praised Putin, castigated NATO and mentioned neither it nor the U.S. may just ever win both an financial or army battle with Russia.
“Russian historical past is stuffed with invaders attempting to overcome Russia. Napoléon and Hitler are simplest the most recent examples. Russia has all the time prevailed,” he wrote.
A be aware on the finish of the piece mentioned Hanick had “not too long ago finished the improvement of a cutting-edge tv community in Moscow, constructed with out executive investment.”