Task Force KleptoCapture

Task Force KleptoCapture was established by the US Department of Justice in March 2022 as a dedicated interagency unit to enforce Western sanctions on Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Comprising prosecutors, federal agents, and financial regulators, it led asset seizures, prosecuted sanctions evasion, and coordinated with allied governments to lock down oligarch wealth hidden in Shell companies and overseas property.

Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded the task force on 5 February 2026, eliminating the primary federal mechanism for enforcing the sanctions regime against Russian oligarchs. The closure ran in parallel with a freeze on compliance hiring at Treasury offices, gutting two enforcement arms simultaneously.

The disbandment arrived weeks before the US Treasury issued waivers on 124 million barrels of Russian oil in March 2026, strongly suggesting a coordinated rollback of the financial architecture built since 2022. The sequencing has alarmed allied governments who relied on US prosecutorial cooperation to sustain broader Western sanctions pressure.