Oleg Deripaska, the prominent billionaire Russian oligarch newly sanctioned by Australia over his ties to Vladimir Putin and his regime amid the war in Ukraine, has enjoyed a relatively untroubled time as an investor here until now, despite serious accusations against him.
The US Senate intelligence committee has said that Mr Deripaska's companies "are proxies for the Kremlin, including for Russian government influence efforts, economic measures and diplomatic relations".
Mr Deripaska has also been accused by the US Treasury of laundering money for Mr Putin and holding his assets. He has strongly denied this.
Amid a bitter court case with a rival businessman in 2012, allegations were aired that Mr Deripaska had threatened the lives of business rivals, bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman and had mafia links. The allegations, also strongly denied, have never been proven.
A UK-listed company founded by Mr Deripaska, called EN+, owns 20 per cent of Australian miner Queensland Alumina Ltd (QAL) through the global aluminium firm, Rusal. Rio Tinto owns the other 80 per cent of QAL.
QAL has been important to Rusal as it supplies alumina to feed its aluminium smelters in Siberia.
The shareholding first came into sharp diplomatic focus in 2018 after the US Treasury hit Mr Deripaska and Rusal with sanctions to punish Mr Putin and his supporters for Russian interference in the US election and other "malign activities" including the 2014 occupation of Crimea.
The decision prompted a massive global lobbying effort by Mr Deripaska to have the sanctions overturned.
He enlisted EN+ chairman Lord Barker of Battle – aka British Conservative lord Gregory Barker – to spearhead the efforts.
As Four Corners revealed in last year's program investigating Russian money and influence in Australia, Lord Barker hired a top-tier Washington lobbyist, Mercury Public Relations, to try to reverse the US Treasury decision.
Mercury got to work on various US officials, arguing that because Rusal supplied a fair chunk of the world's aluminium, sanctioning Rusal was bad for the global economy.
Mercury also targeted ambassadors for countries where Rusal and EN+ held investments, including Australia.
Joe Hockey, who was then Australia's ambassador to the US, was approached to write to US sanctions officials arguing that the sanctions should be reversed.
As Four Corners revealed, Mercury sent Mr Hockey a briefing note which played up the threat to Australian jobs.
"Rusal owns 20 per cent of Queensland Alumina," it noted. "Therefore the jobs and the critical economic activity of this company are at risk."
Mercury, via its operative, former Republican congressman David Vitter, proposed that Mr Hockey send a letter to US Treasury officials supporting a proposed restructure of Rusal and EN+ which would reduce Mr Deripaska's influence and therefore negate the need for sanctions on the companies.
The lobbyists also prepared a draft letter they wanted Mr Hockey to sign, which began: "On behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia, I would like to express strong support for … the plan to restructure EN+ Group and Rusal in order to lift the threat of sanctions against the companies."
Mr Hockey told Four Corners that he did not recall the letter and would not have acted on it.
The lobbying campaign worked, and in 2019, after Mr Deripaska agreed to reduce his holding in EN+ to 45 per cent – below a controlling stake — US sanctions were lifted from Rusal and EN+, although Mr Deripaska remains personally sanctioned. Mr Deripaska is fighting the personal sanctions in court.
In Australia, Mr Deripaska and Rusal remained unsanctioned, prompting Transparency International Australia's CEO Serena Lillywhite to tell Four Corners: "No individual or company that is sanctioned, as is the case with Mr Deripaska – there are personal [US] sanctions against him – should be allowed to do business in Australia".
The call fell on deaf ears, until Russia's invasion of Crimea prompted fresh scrutiny of Mr Deripaska's Australian investment.
For the past couple of weeks, largely following the lead of the US and UK, the Australian government has been announcing sanctions against dozens of other Russian oligarchs close to Mr Putin and their family members, but not Mr Deripaska.
It was only on Friday, after questions were being asked in the media about Mr Deripaska's omission, that he was added to Australia's list. Rusal remains unsanctioned here.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne rejected allegations the government was too slow to target Mr Deripaska.
"I think Australians would expect that their government would want the due diligence done on sanctions processes, no matter where they apply, to make sure that we are addressing all those issues."
