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Authorities in Croatia have arrested a man accused of engineering a cross-country fugitive escape that allowed a Russian man to get back to his home country — the latest move in a global cat-and-mouse game between U.S. authorities and criminal suspects with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The charges were unsealed overnight in New York, where federal prosecutors said Vladimir Jovancic, a citizen of Bosnia, orchestrated the escape of Artem Uss from Italy.
Uss is the son of Alexander Uss, a former Russian governor who is a close ally of Putin’s. After the son’s escape, the father publicly thanked Putin. On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller announced a $7 million reward for information leading to Uss’s capture.
Last year, Artem Uss and others were charged with running a business scheme to violate sanctions by, among other things, delivering sensitive U.S. computer equipment with military applications to prohibited Russian entities. American officials said some of that computer equipment was later found on Russian weapons systems seized on the battlefield in Ukraine. The indictment also charged a conspiracy to smuggle hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela through a front company in Germany.
Artem Uss was arrested in Milan on Oct. 17, 2022, as he tried to fly home to Russia. American officials then began the process of seeking his extradition to the United States to face trial.
Five months later, an Italian court approved his extradition. A day after that ruling, authorities said, Uss cut his ankle bracelet monitor and fled the country in a car.
Russians charged with violating sanctions
In a letter to a federal judge in Brooklyn, prosecutors saiod Jovancic “and other individuals affiliated with a Serbian organized crime group” arranged Uss’s flight from justice.
First, authorities said, Jovanovic pretended to be delivering groceries to Uss’s home. The real purpose of the visit was to make preparations for the escape.
On the day of the escape, Jovancic “escorted Uss into a car and provided Uss with bolt cutters, which Uss used to remove his electronic ankle monitor and throw it out the window,” said the letter to U.S. District Judge Rachel Kovner.
Jovancic and his group then allegedly drove Uss into Slovenia.
“Over the next several days, Jovancic and his co-conspirators shuttled Uss through Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina before crossing into Serbia,” the letter charged. Jovancic was paid about 50,000 euros for the work, according to U.S. authorities.
The Justice Department filed the letter hoping to avoid a repeat of Uss’s escape — prosecutors asked the judge to issue an order of detention, so Jovancic would not be let out of jail while he fights extradition to the United States.
Jovancic “has no ties to the United States, while maintaining a network of criminal associates in the Balkans, Russia and elsewhere,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell wrote in the letter. “If released, Jovancic would undoubtedly flee the jurisdiction and seek refuge in Russia or another non-extradition country.”
Jovancic was indicted on charges of obstructing justice and instigating or assisting escape.
Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.