The U.S. has arrested a high-profile executive of a major Russian gas company on federal tax-evasion charges related to what federal officials said were violations that spanned more than a decade.

The arrest of Mark Gyetvay, the deputy chairman of the management board of Novatek, Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, comes as Russia wrestles with European regulatory challenges to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Those issues could provide Mr. Gyetvay’s company an opening to participate in the project.

Novatek...

The U.S. has arrested a high-profile executive of a major Russian gas company on federal tax-evasion charges related to what federal officials said were violations that spanned more than a decade.

The arrest of Mark Gyetvay, the deputy chairman of the management board of Novatek, Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, comes as Russia wrestles with European regulatory challenges to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Those issues could provide Mr. Gyetvay’s company an opening to participate in the project.

Novatek said his arrest wouldn’t affect company operations. The Russian government said it wouldn’t interfere in the U.S. case against Mr. Gyetvay, an American who also holds a Russian passport, although the Kremlin said it might provide assistance.

“The situation has absolutely no effect on Novatek’s operational and financial activities,” the company said about Mr. Gyetvay’s case, adding that it isn’t involved in related litigation.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service and an indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in Fort Myers, Fla., on Wednesday, the Justice Department said. Officials didn’t respond to questions about where Mr. Gyetvay was arrested. Mr. Gyetvay didn’t respond to a request for comment. He faces a potentially lengthy prison sentence on multiple counts that include tax evasion, wire fraud, making false statements, and preparing a false tax return.

Justice Department officials allege that Mr. Gyetvay failed to pay taxes on undisclosed income and offshore assets held largely in Swiss accounts at one time totaling more than $93 million. The U.S. also says that Mr. Gyetvay sought to conceal his control of these assets by placing his then-wife, a Russian citizen, as the accounts’ beneficiary.

Over more than two decades, Mr. Gyetvay has become a prominent executive in Russian energy. A certified public accountant, he relocated to Russia from the U.S. in 1995 to lead the oil and gas practice for Coopers & Lybrand LLP, later becoming a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Mr. Gyetvay joined Novatek in 2003 as its chief financial officer. He became a director for Novatek, the company said, acting as its chief investor liaison as Novatek expanded significantly in the Yamal-Nenets region, in the western Siberian Arctic. That made the company’s CEO and chairman, Leonid Viktorovich Mikhelson, one of Russia’s wealthiest figures. The Yamal Peninsula accounts for roughly 80% of Russian and 15% of global gas production

Last year, Novatek produced 18.8 million tons of liquefied natural gas, 5% of global output, the firm said.

Novatek has grown into a major competitor of Gazprom, the state-owned gas company that holds a monopoly on Russian gas exports and two weeks ago announced the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Running along the bed of the Baltic Sea, Nord Stream 2 will deliver Russian natural gas to Germany, an initiative the U.S. has opposed.

Earlier this year, Gazprom lost an appeal in German court for exemption from the European Union’s unbundling law, which states that a single company can’t own both a pipeline and the gas transported through it. This law also mandates third-party access to energy infrastructure, which leaves Novatek a candidate to break Gazprom’s decadeslong gas-export monopoly.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down potential political significance of Mr. Gyetvay’s case on Friday, telling reporters that Moscow is ready to provide him legal aid but cannot interfere with the U.S. justice system.

“Considering that this person is also a citizen of the Russian Federation—if I am right, he has dual citizenship—clearly, we are interested in his fate and the circumstances of the case, and, of course, our diplomatic missions will be ready to provide necessary assistance,” Mr. Peskov said.

—Georgi Kantchev contributed to this article.

Write to Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@wsj.com