US Government Obtains Warrant For Seizure Of Russian Boeing 737

The Boeing 737 is owned by a Russian energy company.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has obtained a seizure warrant for a Boeing 737-7EM owned by a Russian energy company, PJSC LUKOIL.

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PJSC LUKOIL is a Russian multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Moscow. The company's Boeing 737-7EM aircraft was found to have violated federal law, leading a judge in the US District Court for the Southern State of Texas to authorize the seizure. Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted the US Department of Commerce to issue sanctions against Russia. The sanctions were implemented to protect United States national security and foreign policy and impose export controls and license requirements. The United States prohibited American-made aircraft from "export, reexport or in-country transfer of, among other things... to or within Russia without a valid license or license exception."

According to court documents, the Russian-owned aircraft flew in and out of Russia, violating the Department of Commerce's sanctions. The last time the aircraft was on United States soil was before the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2019, the LUKOIL 737 flew to Houston carrying a Russian oligarch and then President and CEO Vagit Alekperov. LUKOIL owns the Boeing 737-7EM, which bears manufacturer serial number 34865, tail number VP-CLR, and is believed to be worth USD 45 million. The Russian energy company has been subject to sanctions imposed by the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control since 2014.

The Justice Department's Task Force KleptoCapture is coordinating the seizure action of the Boeing 737. The task force is "an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls and economic countermeasures that the United States, along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to Russia's unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine." The force was announced by the Attorney General in March and is run through the office of the Deputy AG. The FBI, Homeland Security, U.S. Attorney's office, Trial Attorneys, and the Federal Aviation Administration have all gotten involved in the seizure investigation/action.

Recent DOJ seizure warrants

In July, the DOJ obtained a warrant to seize a 747-300M freighter from Venezuelan cargo airline EMTRASUR. The 747 is owned by a state-owned airline, Empresa de Transporte Aéreocargo del Sur (EMTRASUR). Argentinian authorities had grounded the plane in June on the suspicion that people traveling on the aircraft had possible terror links. The U.S. government wanted the aircraft to be flown to the U.S. so it could be confiscated.

"As alleged in the seizure warrant, in or around October 2021, Mahan Air violated the Temporary Denial Order and US export control laws when it transferred custody and control of the Boeing aircraft to EMTRASUR without US Government authorization. Additional violations of US export control laws subsequently occurred between February and May 2022 when EMTRASUR reexported the aircraft between Caracas, Venezuela; Tehran, Iran; and Moscow, Russia, without US Government authorization." - DOJ Statement

When the plane landed in Buenos Aires, 19 people were on board, including the captain, who was previously a commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a shareholder and member of the board of Qeshm Fars Air, an Iranian airline. Many countries, including the United States, classify the IRGC Qods Force as a terrorist organization, and Feshm Fars Air has supposedly supplied the Qods Force with materials.