The long tentacles of U.S. sanctions imposed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 have grounded the aircraft bearing the logo of Aman Resorts, which has a luxury hotel planned for Aspen.
The business jet owned by Aman Resorts and its CEO, Vladislav Doronin, who bought the Gorsuch Haus property on Aspen Mountain for $76.5 million last year, has not been able to fly since November due to sanctions imposed on the aircraft’s operator by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The sanctions are not directly tied to Doronin and Aman; however, the Bombardier Global Express aircraft has been on OFAC’s “Specially Designated Nationals” list for nearly nine months. OFAC has a database of sanctions that are open to the public.
The Aman aircraft is among eight planes that were being operated and managed by Malta- and Russia-based Emperor Aviation Ltd., which also was sanctioned, according to OFAC.
OFAC said in November it was sanctioning Emperor Aviation because it coordinated luxury travel for relatives of Suleiman Kerimov, who is a member of Russia’s parliament. U.S. sanctions already had been imposed on Kerimov since 2018; after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the United States, United Kingdom and European Union identified Kerimov as an oligarch and an ally to President Vladimir Putin.
In its November sanctions, OFAC added Kerimov’s wife, son and two daughters to the list.
The Aman airplane’s tail number, or N number, is 9H-AMN; the prefix “9H” indicates the aircraft is registered in Malta, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. All eight aircraft that Emperor Aviation operated are based in Malta, an island nation that is a member of the European Union and located in the Mediterranean Sea.
Aman issued a statement Monday in response to a set of questions from the Aspen Daily News concerning the status of the aircraft. The newspaper also asked about when the Doronin team plans to submit a building application for the 1-acre parcel of Aspen Mountain land, which a Doronin affiliate acquired in March 2022. The purchase included approvals to build an 81-room hotel as part of the larger Lift One Corridor project Aspen voters narrowly approved in March 2019.
“This plane has not flown since June 2022, when it was readied for sale, well before sanctions impacted the third-party vendor which operated the aircraft,” the statement said. “Mr. Doronin is not subject to sanctions in any jurisdiction. Mr. Doronin plans to visit Aspen during the forthcoming winter season and continues to be excited about this long-term commitment to the Aspen community.”
Doronin was born in the Soviet Union and is a Swedish national and resident of Switzerland, according to a libel lawsuit he filed over reporting and commentary published in The Aspen Times. The suit was filed against West Virginia-based Ogden Newspapers, which owns the Times, on April 13, 2022, in the U.S. District Court in Denver.
The lawsuit settled out of court the following July, and the publication agreed to remove reports and commentary referring to Doronin as an “oligarch,” among other conditions.
The lawsuit said Doronin, since either 2013 or 2014, “has not conducted any business in Russia and is no longer associated with Capital Group,” a real estate development company he founded in Moscow in 1993. Subsequent reporting, however, showed that Doronin held one-third ownership in Capital Group Development, an affiliate of Capital Group, until he transferred it to his mother on April 14, 2023, according to open records on file with the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
According to FlightAware.com, the Aman jet’s last flight was on June 8, 2022, when it traveled from Abu Dhabi, UAE, to Vienna, Austria. The same aircraft landed in Moscow on 16 different dates starting May 25, 2021, and running through Feb. 3, 2022, according to a Miami court proceeding that involved Doronin. Filings in the proceeding, which was not related to the sanctions, cited FlightAware.com and Flightradar24.com as its sources for the aircraft’s travel.
The Aman-Doronin aircraft was built in 2006 and refurbished in 2010, according to online databases. The twin-engine aircraft can seat eight to 12 people.
When the sanctions were announced, a statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken read in part: “Malta- and Russia-based aircraft management company Emperor Aviation Ltd (Emperor Aviation) has coordinated luxury travel for Kerimov’s immediate family … even after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.”
The sanctions are being imposed under Executive Order 14024, “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, Gulnara.” Gulnara Kerimov is one of Kerimov’s sanctioned daughters; OFAC also sanctioned four real estate companies she owns in France.
The other seven aircraft operated by Emperor Aviation and slapped with sanctions are:
9H-ARK, a Bombardier BD-700-1A10
9H-EAA, a Cessna Citation XLS+
9H-MAO, a Bombardier BD-700-1A10
9H-OKO, a Gulfstream G650
9H-SIS, a Bombardier Challenger
9H-SSK, a Gulfstream G650
9H-TIO, a Bombardier BD-700-1A10
OFAC’s SDN list contains approximately 12,000 names associated with sanctions targets, according to the treasury department.