With sanctions lifted, Trump transition member gets board position on Russian oligarch's company

https://www.salon.com/2019/01/30/with-sanctions-lifted-trump-transition-member-gets-board-position-on-russian-oligarchs-company/

A member of President Trump’s transition team was announced as a new board member of a company owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska as soon as the Treasury Department lifted sanctions on Deripaska’s companies Sunday.

On Sunday, the Treasury Department lifted the sanctions on three companies owned by Deripaska 10 months after it imposed them, citing Russia’s “malign activity around the globe.” Deripaska, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was also personally sanctioned because the government accused him of threats to rivals, bribing government officials and links to organized crime.

As part of the deal to have the sanctions lifted, Deripaska agreed to dilute his control of EN+, the parent company of the Russian aluminum giant Rusal.

Democrats strongly opposed the deal and voted in the House to keep the sanctions but the measure was defeated in the Republican-controlled Senate. The Treasury Department claimed that the deal required Deripaska to “sever” his control of the companies but The New York Times reported that leaked documents revealed a scheme that allowed Deripaska to retain majority ownership of EN+. The Times added that the deal could possible free Deripaska from “hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.”



On Monday, EN+ announced seven new board directors, including Christopher Burnham, who served on Trump’s State Department transition team and previously worked as an executive at Deutsche Bank. Burnham also previously worked as undersecretary general for management of the United Nations under George W. Bush, when Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton was the UN ambassador. A news release from EN+ cited his work in the Bush administration and at Deutsche Bank but did not mention his role on the Trump team.