New York, Mar 4 (AP): A US citizen has been arrested in London for his work as a television producer for a Russian oligarch tied to Russian aggression in Ukraine over the past eight years, particularly in Crimea, prosecutors announced Thursday.

John Hanick, 71, was arrested in London on Feb. 3 in what US Attorney Damian Williams described as the first-ever criminal indictment charging a violation of US sanctions resulting from Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

It was not immediately clear who will represent Hanick, assuming he is successfully extradited, against a sanctions charge that carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Williams said Hanick had worked for years for Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, even after US sanctions placed on Malofeyev banned US citizens from working for or doing business with him.

“The Justice Department will do everything it can to stamp out Russian aggression and interference,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division said in a release.

Olsen said that after Malofeyev was sanctioned for threatening Ukraine and providing financial support to the Donetsk separatist region, Hanick "knowingly chose to help Malofeyev spread his destabilising messages by establishing, or attempting to establish, TV networks in Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece, in violation of those sanctions.” An indictment returned in Manhattan federal court alleged that Malofeyev worked directly for and for the benefit of Malofeyev from at least 2013 through at least 2017.

Malofeyev was designated for sanctions in December 2014 by the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which said he was one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea.

The indictment said Hanick began in at least 2013 to meet with Malofeyev regarding plans to create a new Russian cable television news network.

Prosecutors said Hanick also worked for Malofeyev to establish and run a Greek television network and to acquire a Bulgarian television network.

Prosecutors said that when FBI agents interviewed Hanick about his work for Malofeyev, he made false statements. (AP) VM VM

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