U.S. Probes Gunvor’s Purchase of Lukoil Assets for Possible Putin Links

The United States has launched an investigation into Swiss commodities trader Gunvor Group over its recent acquisition of international assets from Russia’s Lukoil, amid concerns that the deal may conceal financial links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Gaze reports this, referring to Bloomberg.

Gunvor acquired Lukoil International GmbH, the Russian oil major’s global operations arm, in what insiders have described as a landmark transaction within the trading industry. 

The sale took place shortly after new U.S. sanctions targeted Lukoil and its affiliates, raising questions about potential circumvention of restrictions on Russian energy exports and ownership structures.

U.S. authorities, including the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), are expected to scrutinize the deal’s financing and ownership details to ensure no sanctioned individuals or entities profit from the transaction.

Gunvor, co-founded in 2000 by Gennady Timchenko, a longtime Putin associate sanctioned by Washington in 2014, has long faced scrutiny over its historic ties to the Kremlin. 

In response, Gunvor CEO Torbjörn Törnqvist told Bloomberg that the purchase represents a “clean break” from Lukoil, emphasizing that the company “has no intention of returning these assets to Russia” and operates with full transparency.

The timing and scale of the acquisition, coming just days after the latest round of U.S. sanctions, have drawn the attention of Western regulators, who are closely monitoring compliance with restrictions on Russia’s oil sector.

The probe could establish an important precedent for how Western authorities handle future divestments by Russian companies under sanctions.

Gunvor has pledged full cooperation with regulators in all jurisdictions involved, asserting that its operations are “fully independent from any Russian influence.”

As The Gaze previously informed, on October 23, the U.S. has imposed a new round of major sanctions targeting Russia’s energy giants Rosneft and Lukoil, in response to Moscow’s continued reluctance to engage seriously in peace efforts to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Days later, Lukoil announced the sale of its European subsidiary Lukoil International GmbH to Switzerland’s Gunvor Group in a bid to protect its international operations from escalating Western measures.