A Russian oligarch owned a stake in Elon Musk's company, SpaceX.

Russian national Suleiman Kerimov was among the shareholders of SpaceX. He owned a stake in Elon Musk's company through a trust after the first administration of Donald Trump imposed sanctions against him. This was reported by Bloomberg on Thursday, January 30.

Since 2017, Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov has owned a stake in SpaceX through Heritage Trust, based in Delaware. Initially, the trust held 1% of the company.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions against Kerimov in 2018 in response to Russia's malicious activities worldwide. The sanctions were intended to block Kerimov's assets and prevent him from conducting business with American companies.

“Citigroup, which managed the day-to-day administration of Heritage Trust, sought guidance from the Treasury Department and determined that there was no need to block the trust and related organizations after Kerimov was sanctioned, and the trust continued to operate,” the statement said.

However, in 2022, investigators uncovered a scheme in which legal entities and proxies concealed the interests of the Russian oligarch in the trust. As a result, the U.S. Treasury blocked the trust worth $1 billion. Sources from the agency claim that Kerimov's stake in SpaceX had already been sold before this.

“This situation highlights the difficulties in ensuring compliance with sanctions due to complex financial schemes, as well as the challenges faced by private companies like SpaceX, which is currently valued at approximately $350 billion and is becoming an increasingly influential player in the global defense and communications sector,” the report adds.

It is worth noting that representatives of the U.S. Department of Defense and SpaceX were able to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink terminals by Russian military forces. This was reported on May 9, 2024, by U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense John Plumb.

On September 25, Defense Forces shot down a Russian strike drone Shahed-136 during a nighttime attack, which was equipped with Starlink satellite communications from the American company SpaceX.