Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, accidentally revealed that the United States government is using taxpayer dollars to fund the upkeep of Russian yachts seized by federal authorities as part of the on-going “Operation Kleptocapture,” an operation devoted to seizing assets from Russian oligarchs in the United States, The National Pulse reported.
This accidental admission was caught on a “Hot Mic” event at the Center for New American Security (CNAS) on June 16th. Speaking to Richard Fontaine, CEO of CNAS, Sullivan accidentally admitted that the White House’s effort to seize various Russian assets, including super yachts due to the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine, was being funded by taxpayer dollars.
This was apparently a personal discussion between Sullivan and Fontaine, which was seemingly accidentally added to the public version of the discussion on YouTube, which has since been removed.
In talking about Operation Kleptocapture’s criminal and civil seizure of Russian assets, Sullivan appeared to mention the recent seizure of the Amadea, a 348-foot yacht owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov. The federal government seized the yacht in early May and sailed for the United States in early June, after Fiji’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of the seizure.
“I just wasn’t aware how many super yachts there were in the world,” Fontaine told Sullivan on the recording. “I mean the size of these things, the value of these things is unbelievable.”
Sullivan responds, noting that “we have to pay for upkeep” in reference to the U.S. federal government:
“I know. It’s so ridiculous, but you know what the craziest thing is? When we seize one, we have to pay for upkeep.”
(READ MORE: The Ripple Threat of Russia’s Ukraine War: Former Presidential Speechwriter Weighs In)
“The federal government pays for upkeep because under the kind of forfeiture rubric, so like some people are basically being paid to maintain Russian superyachts on behalf of the United States government,” Sullivan continues.
A spokesperson for CNAS has since stated that the takedown was an “honest mistake.”
It has been previously rumored that Jake Sullivan is compromised by the Chinese Communist Party. He has served in various positions known to be linked to the Chinese Communist Party, including Yale’s Paul Tsai China Center and Harvard’s Belfer Center. Sullivan infamously once said he wanted to “encourage China’s rise,” and asserted that Al-Qaeda was “on our side,” The National Pulse reported.
