US sanctions Maltese company for role in network supplying Russia with armaments, nuclear equipment

The United States Department of the Treasury has sanctioned another Malta-based company over its involvement with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its connections with the Vladimir Putin regime.

The new sanction addresses Swiss-Italian businessman Walter Moretti and his network of associates and companies, which includes the Malta-based Stratton Investment Group Ltd.

Moretti’s network of companies, according to the US Treasury, “have covertly procured sensitive Western technologies and equipment for Russian intelligence services and the Russian military, including hydraulic presses, armament packages, and armour plating”.

Moretti and his associates have also procured equipment for Russia’s nuclear weapons laboratories, the Treasury said.

The Malta-based company, Stratton Investment Group LTD, is owned by Taerio Limited.  Moretti used the UAE-based company and Tamyna FZE, also based in the UAE, “in his covert procurement schemes”.

A Switzerland-based company in the network, Tamyna AG, has sent numerous large wire transfers to Taerio Limited, which, in turn, owns the Maltese company. Tamyna AG was also sanctioned for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of Moretti.

The Malta-based company, Stratton Investment Group LTD, is owned by Moretti through Taerio Limited and its directors are Moretti and Swiss Italian national Frederic Pierre Villa, who has also been sanctioned for his connection to Stratton.

It is not yet publicly known what part the Malta-based Stratton played in the network.

Also sanctioned were German national Markus Gerhard Mueller, Swiss nationals Ronald Eric Cosman and Bruno Koller , as well as the Switzerland-based company Swisstec 3D AKUS AG, for assisting Moretti in the procurement of sensitive Western technologies and equipment for Russian intelligence services and the Russian military.

“Due to the impact of sanctions and export controls, Russian intelligence services have been directed to find channels for evasion and backfilling,” the Treasury said in a statement.

The US Treasury sanctioned another Maltese company last November, a Malta-based luxury aviation company, and eight of its Malta-registered aircraft for its links to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov and his family.

The Malta- and Russia-based aircraft management company Emperor Aviation Ltd “coordinated luxury travel for Kerimov’s immediate family, including [his daughter] Gulnara Kerimova, even after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.”

The US Treasury identified as blocked property eight luxury aircraft operated by the Birkirkara-based company. Founded and owned by Russian Irakli Litanishvili, the company offers aircraft management and charter, fuel and handling services from

Emperor Aviation has also been sanctioned for operating or having operated in the aerospace sector of the Russian Federation economy and for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of the Russian Federation.