Hunting for yachts

Russian oligarchs try to bring their toys to safety

There is increasing news about Russian super-rich people who can no longer believe their yachts are safe. Most of the Russians on the annual Forbes list of billionaires have not yet been sanctioned by the United States and its allies, and their superyachts are still cruising the world's oceans.

For Russian oligarchs, a superyacht is indispensable because it is part of their image, a prerequisite. There is also a kind of arms race to see who has the biggest, longest and most elaborate yacht. This is why the gentlemen are being hit in a sensitive area - the sanctioning has begun:

Last week, Italian police confiscated villas and yachts worth at least 140 million euros, which seems small considering the size of some of the vessels. The yachts of Russia's richest man, Alexei Mordashov, and Gennady Timchenko, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, were confiscated overnight in northern Italian harbours.

The confiscation of the yachts could prove difficult.

The EU acted quickly, while the UK was more hesitant. Although calls are also growing louder on the island to part company with the Russian billionaires - there is talk of "Londongrad" - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was quoted on Saturday as saying that amendments to the UK's white-collar crime legislation will be presented to Parliament on Monday so that the government can act more quickly. No sanctions have yet been imposed on the most famous of them, Abramovich. Members of the British Parliament have criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson for not taking action against his assets in the UK, which include professional football club Chelsea. Abramovich announced last week that he would sell the 2.5 billion dollar club and donate the net proceeds "to all victims of the war in Ukraine".

The AP news agency has compiled a list of 56 superyachts believed to belong to several dozen oligarchs from the Kremlin, a fortune at sea with an estimated market value totalling more than 5.4 billion dollars. The "Graceful", which was picked up from Hamburg on 7 February, probably belongs to Vladimir Putin, a superyacht built in Germany and sailing under the Russian flag. It left a repair yard in Hamburg two weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. At 82 metres long and 100 million $, the "Graceful" is not the only yacht that Putin has at his disposal. already in the upper segment. He also owns the "Chayka", a 54 metre ship for a modest % 10 million, purchased by the Russian government in 2011.

One of the Russian yachts is the enormous "Dilbar", built by Lürssen Yachts, which is 157 metres long, has two helipads, can accommodate 130 guests and also has a 25-metre swimming pool. It cost a total of 600 million dollars in 2016 and - allegedly - belongs to the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov. It is currently docked at Blohm& Voss in Hamburg and its owner has had to adjust to the fact that both the United States and the European Union have announced economic sanctions against him, a loyal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "We will join with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury homes and your private jets," President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, addressing the oligarchs. "We will collect your ill-gotten gains."

But confiscating the yachts could prove difficult. For decades, Russian billionaires have protected their money and assets in the West from governments that might try to tax or confiscate them. Several media outlets reported on Wednesday that the German authorities had seized the "Dilbar". However, a spokeswoman for Hamburg's economy ministry told The Associated Press that no such action had yet been taken as they had been unable to establish ownership of the yacht.

The "Dilbar" sails under the flag of the Cayman Islands and is registered with a holding company in Malta, two tax and banking havens where the world's ultra-rich can store their wealth. But there is no such thing as a secret owner, because anyone who has something wants to show it off. That's why it's an open secret in the industry who owns something.

While many luxury, super, mega and gigayachts are still in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, more than a dozen were on their way to or had already arrived in remote harbours in small countries such as the Maldives and Montenegro, which may be beyond the reach of Western sanctions. Three are in Dubai

The French authorities confiscated the superyacht "Amore Vero" in the Mediterranean town of La Ciotat on Thursday. It is suspected that the boat belongs to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs the Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the US sanctions list since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The French Ministry of Finance said in a statement that customs authorities boarded the 96-metre-long "Amore Vero" and found that the crew had made ready for sea, although the repair work had not yet been completed.

On Saturday, the Italian financial police seized the 45m superyacht "Lena", which flies the flag of the British Virgin Islands, in the harbour of San Remo. The authorities declared that the boat belonged to Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin who is one of the persons sanctioned by the European Union. With an estimated net worth of 16.2 billion dollars, Timchenko is the founder of the Volga Group, which specialises in investments in energy, transport and infrastructure.

The 70-metre-long "Lady M" was also seized by the Italians when it was moored in the port city of Imperia on the Riviera. The comparatively modest 27-million-dollar ship is owned by industrialist Alexei Mordashov, who is considered Russia's richest man with a fortune of around 30 billion dollars. However, Mordashov's large yacht, the 140m "Nord", was moored on Friday in the Seychelles, which does not fall within the scope of US or EU sanctions. The Nord is one of the largest superyachts in the world and has a market value of 500 million dollars. She was delivered by Lürssen Yachts a year ago.

Sources: Reuters, AP, superyachtfan, boote exclusiv, own research