Executive of Russia’s Novatek faces US tax charges

An American manager of the Russian gas giant Novatek, who was granted citizenship by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been arrested by US authorities for tax evasion and tax fraud.

Mark Gyetvay, a member of Novatek’s board of directors, has been accused of defrauding American authorities to avoid millions of dollars in taxes for which he could be jailed for several decades, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.

“From 2005 to 2016 … Gyetvay allegedly participated in a scheme to defraud the United States by concealing his ownership and control of significant offshore assets and failing to file and pay millions in taxes on income “, it says in a statement.

The department claims Gyetvay opened two bank accounts in Switzerland to place his “lucrative stock options” which were part of his compensation.

The balance on these accounts climbed to over $ 93 million at some point, and he invested them on behalf of his then-wife “to hide his possessions and control over the overseas accounts,” the government said.

Even though he was an accountant, Gyetvay had neither filed his US income taxes, nor disclosed his foreign bank accounts, nor provided false information to the government, the Justice Department said.

Gyetvay was once the chief financial officer of Novatek, but in a statement released on Friday, the company said he stepped down from that position in 2014 and is now on the board.