John Can Unsalan, also known as Hurrem Can Unsalan, the president of Metalhouse LLC in Orlando, has pleaded guilty to participating in a money laundering conspiracy linked to violating U.S. sanctions. This involved acquiring over $150 million in metal products from companies owned by Sergey Kurchenko, a sanctioned oligarch.
Kurchenko had been sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in 2015 due to his involvement in the misappropriation of Ukrainian state assets.
Unsalan was indicted on 22 counts in April, including conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and international money laundering charges. Between July 2018 and October 2021, Unsalan conspired to transfer funds to Kurchenko and his sanctioned companies to procure steelmaking equipment and raw materials, despite being aware of the sanctions prohibiting such transactions. Unsalan and his associates received substantial quantities of metal products and agreed to share the profits from these illegal deals without obtaining the necessary licenses from OFAC.
Unsalan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering linked to IEEPA violations, which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Additionally, he agreed to forfeit $160,416,948.56 in ill-gotten gains. The remaining charges in the indictment will be dismissed as part of his plea agreement, and his sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge, taking into account sentencing guidelines and statutory factors.
One of Unsalan’s co-conspirators, Sergey Karpushkin, previously pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit over $4.7 million in criminal proceeds.
The FBI Tampa and Washington Field Offices conducted the investigation, with support from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chauncey A. Bratt, Trial Attorney Sean O’Dowd from the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, and Trial Attorney Emma Ellenrieder from the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
This investigation was part of the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, which is dedicated to enforcing sanctions, export controls, and economic countermeasures imposed in response to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. The task force works collaboratively with U.S. allies and partners to combat efforts to evade or undermine these measures in response to Russian military aggression, as announced by the Attorney General on March 2, 2022.
By FCCT Editorial Team
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