Lawyer talks about Spartak's risks due to sanctions against Alekperov's son

On January 10, the United States imposed new sanctions that affected Spartak board member Yusuf Alekperov. Lawyer Gleb Boyko said that American individuals or banks may, under certain conditions, block the club's transactions. Yusuf Alekperov

The presence of a sanctioned person in the management bodies of a company, for example, in Spartak, can scare off foreign counterparties, lawyer Gleb Boyko from the firm NSP, which specializes in sanctions issues, told RBK Sport. On January 10, the United States introduced new sanctions that affected Spartak board member Yusuf Alekperov, the son of LUKOIL founder Vagit Alekperov. The oil company is the owner and general sponsor of the club.

As Boyko notes, if Yusuf Alekperov, alone or together with other sanctioned persons, does not own more than 50% of the shares in Spartak, then US sanctions should not be applied to the Moscow club. "In the US, unlike the EU and the UK , there are no clearly defined criteria for control over legal entities by the regulator (OFAC, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. — ). Thus, the presence of one sanctioned person on the board of directors should not mean that Spartak should be subject to sanctions," he said.

Boyko noted that US legislation establishes that a company is under the control of a sanctioned person as an independent basis for imposing blocking sanctions: "Thus, in the absence of clear criteria, OFAC may consider that Spartak is under the control of a sanctioned person. However, the likelihood of this is not very high, since Russian sports organizations are not a priority target for US sanctions."

In practice, American entities, particularly banks, may view a company with a sanctioned entity on its board of directors as being under the control of the sanctioned entity and block transactions involving it, Boyko notes. “In any case, the presence of a sanctioned entity on the company’s management board may scare off foreign counterparties,” he believes.

Yusuf Alekperov joined the club's board of directors in 2021. Little is known about his activities in the club from open sources. In a statement from the US Treasury, he was named as the founder and owner of the oilfield services company WellTech (it was also sanctioned). According to the SPARK database, Alekperov is a co-owner of more than ten companies; as of 2021, he owned 0.2% of LUKOIL shares.