South Florida broker faces prison time after managing condos for sanctioned Russian oligarchs
A South Florida real estate broker faces up to five years in prison and must pay a fine of about $1.1 million after pleading guilty Thursday to violating sanctions imposed on two Russian oligarchs who owned three condos in the Bal Harbour and Aventura areas.
Roman Sinyavsky, who owns a Sunny Isles Beach real estate company, admitted in a plea agreement that he handled rental and sale transactions involving the luxury properties owned by the sanctioned Russians, Viktor Perevalov and Valeri Abramov. He was barred from doing business with them because they were sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2018 for operating a Russian construction company that built a highway in the Russian-occupied Crimea region of Ukraine.
The broker’s sentencing is set for April 11 before U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami federal court.
Sinyavsky, owner of Family International Realty LLC, sold Abramov’s condo at Williams Island in Aventura for $1.2 million in March 2019, according to court records. He received $182,442 from that sale and must turn over his commission as a fine to the U.S. government in the plea agreement with prosecutor Eli Rubin at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.
In addition, Sinyavsky maintained and leased Perevalov’s two condos on Collins Avenue in Bal Harbour. The U.S. government seized the properties in a civil forfeiture and sold them for a total of $1.8 million in November, records show. The government is keeping the proceeds of the sales.
Sinyavsky, a naturalized U.S. citizen formerly of Russia, also settled a parallel dispute with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which had sanctioned the two Russian oligarchs. The settlement requires Sinyavsky to pay a fine of $1,076,923.
As part of the agreement, Sinyavsky will be given a credit from the fine in his criminal case toward the OFAC settlement.
This story was originally published January 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM.
