U.S. Sanctions Wagner’s Gold and Diamond Mining Operations

WASHINGTON—The U.S. government imposed sanctions Tuesday on the gold and diamond operations of the paramilitary group Wagner in an attempt to undercut the funding of the Russian organization that has dispatched tens of thousands of soldiers to the war in Ukraine.

The sanctions target four companies that operate in the Central African Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Mali and Russia and are connected to the group’s founder and owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

U.S. Treasury officials had long planned to enact the sanctions, according to a State Department official, but hesitated briefly to avoid taking sides in the short-lived mutiny that resulted in a break between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prigozhin.

Under the sanctions the U.S. will block any financial transactions by the newly targeted entities and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.

Two of the operations in CAR, Midas Resources and Diamville, were revealed as Wagner entities involved in the gold and diamond business in a recent WSJ video investigation, “Shadow Men.”

The documentary explored Wagner’s expanding global business, particularly in CAR, where the group has made inroads with the national government, providing the current president with armed protection in exchange for natural resources.

The CAR government stripped concessions of a local gold mine known as N’dassima from a Canadian company and handed the rights to Wagner’s Midas Resources.

The Journal investigation found that Midas soon developed the mine into the first industrial gold operation in the former French colony.

“Recent reporting indicates that the Wagner Group is working to expand its gold mining and processing operations in N’dassima in CAR, potentially earning the organization significant new income,” according to the notice issued by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the lead sanctions agency.

The company Diamville, which was also included in the Journal’s documentary, hadn’t been previously sanctioned by the U.S. government, but had been targeted in February by the European Union for its role in illicit gold and diamond trades.

“The U.S. government is committed to addressing the relationship between gold and the illicit revenue streams that contribute to and fund conflicts, corruption, and other concerns in sub-Saharan Africa,” the Treasury notice states.

Treasury also confirmed the Journal’s reporting that Wagner has prevented CAR government officials from visiting the region where the Midas mine is located, raising further concerns about the extent of its operations and the impact on local communities.

“This also allows the Wagner Group to extract and export gold outside of official channels, thus depriving CAR of royalties and other revenues,” the Treasury notice states.

In addition to sanctioning CAR companies, Treasury sanctioned entities in Mali, the United Arab Emirates and Russia, among them DM, a limited liability corporation that conducted gold sales, and Industrial Resources General Trading, a Dubai company that provided support to Diamville.

Treasury also sanctioned Andrey Nikolayevich Ivanov, a Russian national who the U.S. government said has been central to Wagner units in Mali.

“The Wagner Group funds its brutal operations in part by exploiting natural resources in countries like the Central African Republic and Mali,” said Brian E. Nelson, undersecretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Write to James V. Grimaldi at [email protected] and Ian Talley at [email protected]