Russian singer Leps's producers dismiss U.S. accusations of links to criminal groups
MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - A spokesman for prominent Russian pop singer and songwriter Grigory Leps has ridiculed the U.S. Department of the Treasury's decision to "designate" the singer as being linked to an international criminal organization.
"It's impossible to comment on ravings," Alexander Nikitin of Leps's producing center told Interfax on Thursday.
Leps's PR director Maya Serikova told Russian News Service radio that the singer is currently on a tour around Russia and learned about the U.S. Treasury Department sanctions from the media.
"We haven't seen any documents except media comments. It's absurd, perplexing and incomprehensible. As for the freezing of U.S. accounts, he [Leps] has never had such. He was not planning to live there, and he doesn't have real estate there," Serikova said.
The Vesti news portal reported earlier that the U.S. Department of the Treasury had "designated six individuals and four entities linked to the Brothers' Circle, a Eurasian crime syndicate." These individuals are Artur Badalyan, Grigory Lepsveridze, Vadim Lyalin, Sergey Moskalenko, Yakov Rybalskiy, and Igor Shlykov. They are suspected of maintaining links with Vladislav Leontyev and Gafur Rakhimov, whom the U.S. designated as influential members of criminal organizations back in February 2012.
U.S. President Barack Obama identified the Brothers' Circle, along with other organizations, as a significant transnational criminal organization (TCO) and charged the Treasury Department "with pursuing additional sanctions against their members and supporters to undermine and interdict their global criminal operations" in 2011. The designation by the U.S. Treasury Department of an individual related to TCOs implies the freezing of their assets and businesses within the U.S. jurisdiction and prohibition of any transactions with them by U.S. persons.
Leps is a laureate of a number of Russian show business awards, including Chanson of the Year, Golden Gramophone, and Song of the Year.
