What evidence links Sergey Belyakov to Oleg Deripaska and to sanctioned Russian financial networks?
Executive summary
Reporting indicates Sergey (Sergei) Belyakov is presented in multiple investigative accounts as an FSB Academy graduate who later worked closely with high-level Russian figures and interacted with Jeffrey Epstein, and those same reporting threads place Oleg Deripaska at the center of sanctioned financial networks and recent U.S. and EU-designated evasion schemes; however, open-source documents in the provided reporting do not show public, direct evidence that Belyakov participated in the specific sanctions-evasion transactions that have been publicly attributed to Deripaska [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Who Sergey Belyakov is claimed to be and his ties to elite Russian circles
Investigative pieces drawing on the Justice Department files and the Dossier Center describe Sergey Belyakov as a graduate of Russia’s FSB Academy who subsequently served as an adviser to oligarch Oleg Deripaska and later as a senior official (including a deputy minister-level role) involved in economic development and events such as the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which Belyakov is said to have run in 2015 — claims repeated across reporting that frames him as someone moving between security, business and political circles [1] [2].
2. Documentary evidence of contact between Belyakov, Epstein and Deripaska
The Justice Department files and press coverage derived from them show Belyakov cultivating a documented relationship with Jeffrey Epstein from May 2014 into 2018, inviting Epstein to SPIEF and exchanging messages — the same corpus of materials, according to reporting, also indicates Epstein was in contact with Oleg Deripaska, establishing contemporaneous links among the three men in those documents [2].
3. What official sanctions records show about Deripaska and sanctioned financial networks
Separate official actions by U.S. and EU authorities make Deripaska the focal point of sanctions and of recently exposed circumvention attempts: the U.S. Department of the Treasury publicly designated an attempted sanctions-evasion scheme coordinated by Deripaska with Dmitrii (Dmitry) Beloglazov and associated Russia-based firms (Titul, Iliadis, Rasperia) that sought to unfreeze more than $1.5 billion in frozen shares, and the EU likewise listed Beloglazov and Titul for setting up a complex circumvention scheme tied to Deripaska [3] [4].
4. What connects Belyakov to those sanctioned financial networks — the evidentiary gap
The reporting supplied establishes Belyakov’s advisory role to Deripaska and contemporaneous social/professional overlap (Epstein introductions and SPIEF invitations), and separately documents Deripaska’s use of intermediaries and firms (Beloglazov/Titul/Iliadis/Rasperia) in formal sanctions-evasion cases brought to public attention by OFAC and EU authorities; however, none of the provided sources contain transactional records, OFAC designations, indictment language, or corporate documents that directly name Belyakov as an operator, intermediary, or beneficiary in the specific financial schemes that have been sanctioned [1] [2] [3] [4]. That is a crucial distinction between being described as an adviser or associate and being tied to the particular networks that U.S. and EU enforcement actions have designated.
5. Alternative interpretations and possible agendas in reporting
The claims tying Belyakov to Deripaska come from investigative outlets and from materials surfaced by groups such as the Dossier Center run by exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which has its own political agenda against Kremlin-aligned actors; coverage drawing on Justice Department files and the Dossier Center therefore mixes primary government documents with independent investigative interpretation, and readers should note that official sanctions actions (OFAC, EU Council) cite named persons and firms — principally Beloglazov and his companies — rather than naming Belyakov in the sanctions-evasion transactions publicized to date [1] [3] [4].
6. Bottom line: what can and cannot be concluded from available reporting
Available, sourced reporting supports that Belyakov is an FSB-Academy–trained figure who held advisory roles connected to Deripaska’s world and that he engaged with Epstein at times when Epstein also had contacts with Deripaska, and separately that Deripaska has been the subject of sanctioned financial networks and formal designation of evasion schemes; what the current public record provided here does not contain is direct, documented evidence tying Belyakov to the specific, named sanctions-evasion entities and transactions (Titul/Iliadis/Rasperia/Beloglazov) that U.S. and EU authorities have designated [1] [2] [3] [4]. Further confirmation would require either enforcement filings or leaked transaction records explicitly naming Belyakov in those schemes, which are not in the set of sources reviewed.