provided any documentation that Luisa Brown was the owner of Steamort. The Subcommittee was unable to determine Steamort's UBO or if Ms. Brown existed.
(11) Mr. Baltser established a private art agency and club called BALTZER in Moscow in 2013. Mr. Baltser used BALTZER to take title and purchase art for his clients. This change altered the payment pattern outlined above to include BALTZER as the entity paying the auction houses for art Mr. Baltser purchased. In addition, following the imposition of sanctions on the Rotenbergs by the United States in March 2014, the Subcommittee traced funds to purchase art to Highland Ventures. Highland Ventures would wire the funds to Steamort; Steamort would wire the funds to BALTZER; and BALTZER would wire funds to the auction house and take title for the art.
(12) Christie's partnered with BALTZER, including allowing Mr. Omelnitski to conduct AML and sanctions checks on BALTZER clients. In the February 2014 agreement, Christie's agreed to rely on BALTZER to conduct due diligence on clients and provide an annual AML compliance certification. Mr. Omelnitski provided the first AML compliance report in December 2014 and confirmed that no BALTZER clients were sanctioned. Mr. Omelnitski did not provide another report until October 2017 when he emailed the amounts associated with BALTZER art purchases; he provided no certification regarding AML or sanctions compliance. Christie's renegotiated the agreement in March 2018 and required BALTZER to produce customer due diligence to the auction house within 10 days of every purchase.
(13) Sotheby's declined the BALTZER proposal, but continued business as usual. While considering Mr. Baltser's proposal, the Sotheby's Baltser Account Representative told Sotheby's management that Mr. Baltser's clients included Russian oligarchs, specifically Arkady and Boris Rotenberg before they were sanctioned by the United States. During her Subcommittee interview, the Baltser Account Representative stated that Mr. Baltser never told her that Arkady and Boris Rotenberg were his clients. Instead, she fabricated this information to convince Sotheby's to agree to the proposal with BALTZER.
(14) Despite having voluntary AML and sanctions policies, auction houses failed to ask basic questions of Mr. Baltser, including for whom he purchased art. This allowed Mr. Baltser to continue to purchase art despite the imposition of sanctions by the United States on the Rotenbergs, completely undermining any action taken by the auction houses to block transactions by sanctioned individuals.
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