The FBI and the US Justice Department officials tried to turn Russian and Kremlin insider Oleg Deripaska into an informant, as they sought information on Russian organized crime and, later, on possible Russian aid to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, the New York Times reported on September 1.

Deripaska and his businesses, along with another Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselberg was singled out in the April 6 round of sanctions, the most damaging sanctions to date that severely impaired his energy and metals major En+, world's second largest aluminium producer Rusal, and other assets.

Reportedly between 2014 and 2016 the US agents "signalled that they might provide help with his trouble in getting visas for the United States or even explore other steps to address his legal problems." Not only Deripaska, but about "half a dozen" Russia's richest were approached by the FBI.

In exchange, they hoped to obtain information on Russian organized crime and, later, on possible Russian aid to Trump’s 2016 campaign, unnamed current and former officials and associates of Deripaska told the NYT. In particular, the FBI agents reportedly pressed Deripaska on whether his former business partner and now convicted ex-chairman of Trump's campaign Paul Manafort was an intermediary between the campaign and the Kremlin.

None of the rich Russians approached by the FBI agreed to cooperate or offered any information, while Deripaska reportedly notified the Kremlin about the efforts to recruit him.

The NYT reminds that Deripaska took out newspaper ads in 2017 volunteering to testify in any congressional hearings examining his work with Manafort and sued the Associated Press for libel following the report that Manafort had secretly worked for him on a plan to “greatly benefit the Putin government” in the mid-2000s.

Previous reports indicated that Deripaska’s En+ and Rusal could be getting closer to striking a deal with the US Treasury Department to suspend or even lift the sanctions in effect from April 2018. 

However, the most recent wave of sanction pressure could have this postponed. Unnamed sources told Reuters that Rusal's financials will face "further deterioration" should it fail to reach a deal with USTD by the end of August.

In the meantime Rusal and its mother energy and metals holding En+ are reportedly preparing to re-register in Russian Special Administrative Districts (SARs), a domestic offshore zone the Russian government introduced in August on Russky and Oktyabrskiy islands.

Registration in SARs could be a "plan B" in case negotiations with the Treasury will fail, a source close to Rusal management told Vedomosti daily on August 17, claiming that "residents of SAR could keep the beneficiaries undisclosed and change the whole structure of the holding." 

Government officials also suggested that Rusal could be supported by buying up excess aluminium for state commodity reserves.