On March 3, a federal court in the Southern District of New York unsealed the first-ever criminal indictment alleging a violation of U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 undermining of democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine.
John Hanick (also known as Jack Hanick) is accused of violating U.S. sanctions imposed in 2014 by working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, as well as lying to federal agents.
Hanick, a 71-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested last month in London and charged in a Manhattan U.S. District Court.
A former director for Fox News, Hanick allegedly left the network to start working with Malofeyev, who the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says is closely tied to Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Malofeyev was determined by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to be a main source of financing for the promotion of Russia-aligned separatist groups operating in the sovereign nation.
In 2014, Former President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13,660 declaring a national emergency in Ukraine. The order was a response to Russian threats against Ukrainian peace, security, and stability, including illegal attempts by Russia to assert governmental authority in the Crimean region without Ukraine’s permission.
Obama’s order came less than a week after Russian forces invaded Crimea, a region in eastern Ukraine, in March of 2014.
According to court documents, the indictment accuses Hanick of working directly under and for the benefit of Malofeyev from approximately 2013 to approximately 2017, continuing to do so after Obama’s Executive order and thereby violating the Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations.
“The Justice Department will do everything it can to stamp out Russian aggression and interference,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
“As alleged in the indictment, the Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev was previously sanctioned for threatening Ukraine and providing financial support to the Donetsk separatist region. The defendant Hanick knowingly chose to help Malofeyev spread his destabilizing messages by establishing, or attempting to establish, TV networks in Russia, Bulgaria and Greece, in violation of those sanctions,” Olsen said.
In an October 2015 article in The Financial Times, Malofeyev said he hired Hanick to help launch his concept for an Orthodox Christian network called Tsargrad TV because he wanted to model it after Fox News and put a “conservative yet modern spin on global news.”
Hanick is also accused of lying to FBI agents last year regarding his travels to Greece and Bulgaria to expand the network in 2015 and 2016.
“The U.S. sanctions on Malofeyev prohibit U.S. citizens from working for or doing business with Malofeyev but, as alleged, Hanick violated those sanctions by working directly for Malofeyev on multiple television projects over the course of several years,” said U.S. Attorney Damien Williams for the Southern District of New York.
According to federal agents, much of the evidence of Hanick’s Kremlin activity was laid out in an unpublished memoir he kept in his email account, which authorities searched with a court-approved search warrant.
Hanick has so far been unwilling to comment on the charges against him.