🦊 Takedown Of A Former Fox News Producer

A former Fox News producer and US citizen has been ensnared in the West's sanctions against Russian oligarchs. John Hanick, who was a producer at Fox for the first 15 years of its existence, was arrested in London last month for violating 8-year-old sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of that nation's annexation of Crimea. He is also charged with lying to FBI agents.

• The charges brought against Mr. Hanick by the U.S. District Court in Manhattan claim he worked for Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev for 3 years after sanctions were placed on Russia in 2014. Malofeev was one of the chief architects and financiers of Russia's separatist campaign in Crimea.

• The indictment further details that Mr. Hanick moved to Greece in 2015 to set up a TV network that would be an "opportunity to detail Russia’s point of view on Greek TV," Hanick wrote to Malofeev in an email, notes the New York Times.

Task Force KleptoCapture

Why go after Hanick now? It seems to be the first action resulting from the DOJ’s creation of a task force that "will target the crimes of Russian oligarchs and those who aid or conceal their unlawful conduct," reports the National Law Review. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco is overseeing the task force named KleptoCapture.

The Verdict

If you impose sanctions but never enforce them, you're doing little more than a performance. With the arrest of John Hanick, we may be witnessing the first domino to fall in a larger takedown of the Russian oligarchs' web, and a sign that sanctions have tangible consequences.