russian billionaire yacht owner

U.S. moves to claim $300M superyacht associated with ‘Russian Gatsby’

The Justice Department officially moved Monday to claim a 348-foot superyacht it says belongs to a sanctioned billionaire oligarch known as the " Russian Gatsby ."

In a civil forfeiture claim filed in federal court in New York, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams' office said that the $300 million vessel, the Amadea , is "beneficially owned" by Suleiman Kerimov and that the "superyacht was improved and maintained in violation of applicable sanctions against Kerimov and those acting on his behalf."

The filing contends the yacht, which has a helipad, an infinity pool, a Jacuzzi and multiple bars, should be forfeited to the U.S. government.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Kerimov , who's worth an estimated $14 billion and has ties to the Russian government, over alleged money laundering in 2018.

He has been referred to as a "Russian Gatsby" in part because he rarely does interviews while indulging in the high life. He has hosted multimillion-dollar parties at his villas on the French Riviera, including one in 2008 that reportedly featured a performance by Beyoncé, and his car collection includes a rare Ferrari Enzo, which he once crashed into a tree in 2006.

The yacht was seized in Fiji last year as part of the work of the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, which has been going after the assets of sanctioned oligarchs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

The court filing said officials were able to prove Kerimov's ownership by showing that he was responsible for numerous upgrades to the vessel, including a new pizza oven.

However, another oligarch, Eduard Khudainatov, maintains that he's the owner of the Amadea and has filed legal challenges for its return. Khudainatov is the former chairman and CEO of Rosneft, the state-controlled gas company in Russia, and he has not been sanctioned by the U.S. government.

The Justice Department has said in court filings that Khudainatov is a "straw owner" and that he couldn't even afford the upkeep on the Amadea and another superyacht he says he owns.

Khudainatov's lawyer, Adam Ford, sued in federal court in California seeking the yacht's return late Sunday, before the federal action Monday. The filing says the government's estimate of his client's wealth is based in part on his failure to show up on Forbes' annual billionaires list, and it contends "a magazine's list should not be the basis of, or suffice as evidence for, any U.S. government enforcement action."

Ford said in a statement, "We are confident that a neutral arbiter will order the return of the Amadea to our client."

The U.S. has worked with numerous countries to seize a number of superyachts with ties to oligarchs, whose ownership interests are often hard to prove.

Task Force KleptoCapture co-director Michael Khoo said in a statement that the forfeiture proceeding against the Amadea came "after a careful and painstaking effort to develop the necessary evidence showing Suleiman Kerimov’s clear interest in the Amadea and the repeated misuse of the U.S. financial system to support and maintain the yacht for his benefit."

“Getting to this point required extensive cooperation across the U.S. government and with foreign partners. It underscores our resolve to undertake challenging, cross-border investigations and to send a message to Russian oligarchs and their enablers: if you flout the rule of law, you can expect to pay real and meaningful consequences,” Khoo said.

Michael Kosnar is a Justice Department producer for the NBC News Washington Bureau.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

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16 superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs

Western sanctions over moscow's invasion of ukraine led to many luxury vessels being detained in europe.

Two superyachts linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich were spotted on the Turkish coast on Tuesday, 'Eclipse' and 'My Solaris'. Mr Abramovich is among several wealthy Russians added to an EU blacklist as governments act to seize their yachts and other luxury assets. AP

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Several luxury yachts owned by wealthy Russians have been detained across Europe this month.

It comes after the West imposed sanctions on oligarchs over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine .

Some have taken evasive action – two such superyachts linked to billionaire Roman Abramovich were spotted approaching the Turkish coast on Tuesday. A group of Ukrainians tried to stop one of the yachts from docking in Turkey.

Chelsea FC owner Mr Abramovich is one of several oligarchs who were added to an EU blacklist last week as governments acted to seize yachts and other luxury assets owned by the billionaires.

Western sanctions resulted in many large vessels relocating from Europe in the past few weeks. Several have headed to places such as the Maldives, which have no extradition treaty with the US.

Where is the Abramovich-owned yacht heading?

Mr Abramovich's yacht Eclipse was seen heading towards Marmaris on Tuesday, according to data compiled by monitoring site Marine Traffic, which was seen by Reuters.

The previous day, his superyacht Solaris was moored in Bodrum, about 80 kilometres from Marmaris, data showed, after skirting waters of EU countries.

There was no suggestion Mr Abramovich was on board either of the yachts.

Ukrainians attempt to stop Abramovich's yacht docking in Turkey

Which yachts have been detained?

On Monday, a superyacht linked to another Russian billionaire was detained by authorities after docking in Gibraltar.

The Axioma , believed to belong to Dmitrievich Pumpyansky, moored at Gibraltar on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, Reuters TV footage showed.

Mr Pumpyansky, who is under UK and EU sanctions, owns Russia's largest steel pipe maker TMK. Data shows the 72-metre vessel is owned by a British Virgin Islands holding company called Pyrene investments, Reuters reported. An article published as part of the Panama Papers leaks names Mr Pumpyansky as a beneficiary of the holding.

On March 12, the world's biggest sailing yacht, called Sailing Yacht A and owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko , was seized by Italian police.

Several other luxury yachts have also been detained across Europe, including in Gibraltar, Mallorca in Spain's Balearic Islands and the French coast.

Here are 16 superyachts linked to wealthy Russians

1. Eclipse , a superyacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich , was this week spotted heading in the direction of Marmaris in Turkey.

2. Solaris , belonging to Mr Abramovich , moored in Bodrum at the start of the week.

3. The Axioma superyacht, belonging to Russian oligarch Dmitrievich Pumpyansky , who is on the EU's list of sanctioned Russians, was detained by authorities after docking in Gibraltar on Monday.

4. The Crescent , which was seized by the Spanish government in Tarragona, Spain, on March 17. The ship's owner is not publicly known, although it is believed to belong to Russian Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft Oil in Moscow.

5. Ragnar , owned by former KGB officer and Russian oligarch Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, who is not on the EU sanctions list.

6. Tango , owned by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who was sanctioned by the US on March 11.

7. Lady Anastasia , owned by Russian arms manufacturer Alexander Mijeev, is retained at Port Adriano, Mallorca, as a result of sanctions against Russia and Belarus issued by the European Union.

8. Valerie was seized by the Spanish government in Barcelona, Spain, on March 15. Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that the ship is linked to Rostec State Corporation’s chief executive Sergey Chemezov.

9. The $578 million Sailing Yacht A owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko was seized by Italian police in the port of Trieste on March 12.

10. The 156-metre Dilbar superyacht is owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

11. La Datcha belongs to Russian billionaire businessman Oleg Tinkov.

12. Lady M , owned by Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov, was seized by Italian police on March 5.

13. Amore Vero was seized in the Mediterranean resort of La Ciotat on March 3 by French authorities. The yacht is linked to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

14. Quantum Blue , owned by a company linked to Russian billionaire Sergei Galitsky, the head of Russian oil giant Rosneft, was seized in southern France on March 3.

15. Superyacht Luna is owned by Russian billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov.

16. Triple Seven is owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Abramov, according to media reports. The yacht was last up for sale in 2020 for €38 million ($41.85 million).

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France seizes yacht linked to Russian oligarch at Mediterranean port

Vessel linked to Igor Sechin taken as Hamburg authorities deny confiscation of Alisher Usmanov’s $600m superyacht

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France’s finance minister has announced the country has seized a yacht linked to Rosneft boss, Igor Sechin, in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat, as German local authorities denied reports they had also seized the $600m superyacht belonging to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said it had seized a yacht linked to Rosneft boss Igor Sechin in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat.

The finance ministry said the yacht was owned by an entity of which Sechin had been identified as the main shareholder.

The announcement came as authorities in Hamburg denied reports that Usmanov’s yacht had been seized in a shipyard in the German port city.

“No yachts have been confiscated,” a spokesperson for Hamburg’s economic authority said. “A handover [of the yacht to its owner] is also currently not planned. No yacht is going to leave the port that is not allowed to do so.”

The Hamburg local authority said any order to seize properties subject to sanctions would have to come from higher federal customs authorities.

A Forbes report citing three sources in the yacht industry had reported on Usmanov’s 156-metre (512-foot) yacht Dilbar, valued at $600m and regarded as the largest motor yacht in the world by gross tonnage, was seized by German authorities on Wednesday.

Usmanov was on a list of billionaires to face sanctions from the European Union in response to Russia’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine.

Usmanov’s 156-metre (512-foot) yacht Dilbar, valued at $600m and regarded as the largest motor yacht in the world by gross tonnage, was seized by German authorities on Wednesday, according to a Forbes report based on three sources in the yacht industry.

The Guardian understands that repair works on the Dilbar yet have currently been put on hold, and that the ship is not in a seaworthy state.

The yacht has been in the yards of shipbuilding firm Blohm+Voss since late October. A spokesperson declined to give a statement but said that all projects by shipbuilder Lürssen would be treated “in accordance with the law”.

Forbes reported that representatives for Usmanov did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ukraine’s adviser to the minister of internal affairs, Anton Geraschenko, responded to the report on Telegram by saying the yacht should be sent to Ukraine and refitted as a missile cruiser.

Usmanov bought Dilbar in 2016 for a reported cost of $600m from German shipbuilder Lürssen, which custom-built it for him over 52 months.

The firm describes it as “one of the most complex and challenging yachts ever built, in terms of both dimensions and technology”.

At the time of its launch, Lürssen CEO, Peter Lürssen, said : “Dilbar has the most advanced security technologies of any superyacht in the world. But the things you read about it containing an anti-aircraft missile defence system are all nonsense.”

At 15,917 tonnes, it’s the world’s largest motor yacht by gross tonnage, and is typically staffed by a crew of 96 people, with space for 24 passengers in 12 suites. It has the largest pool ever installed on a yacht as well as two helicopter pads, a sauna, a beauty salon and a gym.

At least five other superyachts owned by Russian billionaires are now anchored or cruising in Maldives, an Indian Ocean island nation that does not have an extradition treaty with the US, ship tracking data showed.

The vessels’ arrival in the archipelago off the coast of Sri Lanka follows the imposition of severe western sanctions on Russia.

The Clio superyacht, owned by Oleg Deripaska, the founder of aluminium giant Rusal, who was sanctioned by the US in 2018, was anchored off the capital Male on Wednesday, according to shipping database MarineTraffic.

The Titan, owned by Alexander Abramov, a cofounder of steel producer Evraz, arrived on 28 February.

Three more yachts owned by Russian billionaires were seen cruising in Maldives waters on Wednesday, the data showed. They include the 88-metre (288 ft) Nirvana owned by Russia’s richest man, Vladimir Potanin . Most vessels were last seen anchored in Middle Eastern ports earlier in the year.

A spokesperson for Maldives’ government did not respond to a request for comment.

The US has said it will take strict action to seize property of sanctioned Russians.

“This coming week, we will launch a multilateral transatlantic taskforce to identify, hunt down, and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs: their yachts, their mansions, and any other ill-gotten gains that we can find and freeze under the law,” the White House said in a tweet on Sunday.

Washington imposed sanctions on Deripaska and other influential Russians in 2018 because of their ties to president Vladimir Putin after alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election, which Moscow denies.

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A Russian oligarch's megayacht seized by the US is costing taxpayers a fortune, and the government is desperate to sell

• A Russian oligarch's seized megayacht is costing US taxpayers $922,000 a month, a court filing says.
• Officials said last month it costs $600,000 — but there's also insurance and dry-docking fees.
• Another Russian billionaire is claiming ownership of the yacht and opposing attempts to sell it.

A Russian oligarch's megayacht is costing taxpayers almost $1 million a month after the government seized it, court filings say.

US officials say the $300-million Amadea is owned by Suleiman Kerimov , a sanctioned Russian billionaire. It has a helipad, a swimming pool, and a movie theater on board.

The 348-foot vessel was first seized by authorities in Fiji in April 2022. It's now docked in San Diego, but the government wants to sell it due to huge maintenance costs.

Related stories

Last month, an assistant chief in the US Marshals Service said the Amadea was costing the government about $600,000 a month .

That's made up of $360,000 for crew salaries; $75,000 for fuel; and $165,000 for maintenance, waste removal, food for the crew, and miscellaneous expenses.

But a Friday court filing seen by Business Insider says there are actually even more costs that bring the total monthly bill up to $922,000.

It costs $144,000 to insure the megayacht, and dry-docking fees of $178,000 a month, the filing says.

The legal battle over the Amadea involves another Russian billionaire, Eduard Khudainatov, who claims he, not Kerimov, is the owner of the yacht.

Lawyers for Khudainatov, who is not sanctioned, have objected to the government's attempts to sell the Amadea.

According to CNBC, which first reported on Friday's filing, Khudainatov has offered to reimburse the government for the $20 million it has already spent maintaining the yacht if it's returned to him.

However, as long as the government continues trying to sell the Amadea, he won't pay the costs, CNBC reported.

Watch: Putin's $51 billion Sochi plan blew up in his face

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Justice Department, Russian Billionaire Battle Over Seized Superyacht

T he Justice Department last year seized a superyacht as part of a crackdown on Russia’s business elite. Now a tug of war has erupted over who owns it.

On Monday, as a Russian oil tycoon sued the U.S. government to get the 348-foot Amadea back, prosecutors said it isn’t his and sought to have it forfeited, saying it really belongs to another billionaire close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Justice Department said the $325 million yacht belongs to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, a business tycoon-turned-politician, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018, accused of money laundering and tax evasion. It filed a complaint in Manhattan federal court Monday seeking the vessel’s forfeiture.

“The United States brings this action today after a careful and painstaking effort to develop the necessary evidence showing Suleiman Kerimov’s clear interest in the Amadea and the repeated misuse of the U.S. financial system to support and maintain the yacht for his benefit,” said Michael Khoo, co-director of a Justice Department task force targeting such assets. 

Not true, said Eduard Khudainatov, a former president of Rosneft Oil. He sued the U.S. government Monday, saying he is the rightful owner of the Amadea, which authorities confiscated in May 2022 as part of an international effort to raise the cost to the Kremlin and its supporters of pursuing the invasion of Ukraine. 

Khudainatov’s suit asserts that he, not Kerimov, owns the luxury craft, which is longer than a football field, has the requisite helicopter landing pad and is capable of cruising between continents. Khudainatov isn’t under sanctions, his suit says, and he wants the ship back.

The lawsuit includes a September letter from Khoo and his KleptoCapture task force co-director, David Lim, saying they have closed their criminal investigation into Khudainatov. While his lawyers included that letter to strengthen their case, it signals that investigators have concluded Khudainatov isn’t the vessel’s rightful owner.

“The Amadea was targeted by the U.S. government because of its size, opulence and Russian ownership, and not because of any evidence it was involved in wrongdoing,” the suit says. Representatives for Kerimov couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the lawsuit. In the civil forfeiture complaint, prosecutors said various transactions and documents aboard the vessel link it to Kerimov, who they said wanted to make renovations to it, including turning the existing gym into a spa with a massage table, replacing the wine refrigerators with bookshelves and upgrading to bigger toilets and bidets.

The seizure of the Amadea in Fiji was among the first major, visible moves by the KleptoCapture task force, which was set up to confiscate and freeze the luxury yachts, real estate, private jets and other assets of Russian oligarchs with ties to President Vladimir Putin. 

KleptoCapture’s aim is both to punish businessmen close to the Kremlin and to use the proceeds of sales of boats and mansions to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine. Justice Department officials held up the Amadea’s seizure as an early success. But the fight over its ownership highlights the challenges law-enforcement agencies across the West face as they move to confiscate assets from rich Russians. 

Many Russian billionaires hold their wealth through a maze of opaque shell companies, the beneficial owners of which can include members of the sanctioned oligarch’s family or someone else entirely. That ownership structure often complicates the process of proving that a sanctioned individual is actually linked to an asset. Indeed, Khudainatov’s suit argues that the Amadea isn’t owned by a sanctioned individual and so shouldn’t be frozen. 

Another legal hurdle: Being sanctioned isn’t a crime. It merely freezes an individual’s asset and bars the holder from using it. Government agencies must prove an individual broke the law before they can confiscate properties such as yachts as the proceeds of crime.

An FBI agent wrote in an application for a warrant to seize the yacht that it appeared Kerimov purchased the ship in 2021, after he was sanctioned, pointing to various financial transactions. The yacht’s automated information system was turned off on Feb. 24, the document said, almost immediately after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Khudainatov’s lawsuit said information on the yacht’s location has always been available and the warrant application, much of which has been redacted, was “knowingly false and misleading.” Khudainatov said he never sold the yacht to Kerimov and doesn’t know him.

“The DOJ has been parading the Amadea around as the poster child of President Biden’s policy,” Khudainatov’s lawyers Adam Ford and Renée Jarusinsky wrote in the suit, filed in the Southern District of California. 

U.S. taxpayers in June 2022 paid to have the Amadea sailed to San Diego, where the lawsuit estimates it has cost the government at least $1 million a month to maintain.  The U.S. government is legally obligated to maintain the value of any asset it seizes.

Western governments have held the line and maintained most of the sanctions imposed despite a wave of legal challenges. Most governments have said sanctions will only be lifted once the war in Ukraine is over. Meanwhile, taxpayers are pouring millions of dollars into maintaining yachts and other properties that no one can use.

—Max Colchester contributed to this article.

Write to Sadie Gurman at [email protected].

Why the U.S. put a $1 million bounty on a Russian yacht’s alleged manager

On Sept. 3, 2020, the staff of a $90 million yacht placed an order with a U.S. company for a set of luxury bathrobes that came to $2,624.35.

For roughly two years before that, according to federal prosecutors, the yacht’s management had been falsely claiming it was working for a boat named “Fanta.” But the luxury bathrobes came embroidered with a monogram that, prosecutors said, revealed the yacht’s true identity: “Tango.”

That was a problem, officials say in court papers, because Tango was owned by a Russian billionaire under U.S. sanctions, and doing business on his behalf violated federal law.

Late last month, U.S. authorities unveiled a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of the man they say was running the yacht staff and orchestrated the deception with the robes — Vladislav Osipov, 52, a Swiss-based businessman from Russia. In a new indictment , federal prosecutors say Osipov misled U.S. banks and companies into doing business with the Tango yacht despite the sanctions on the Russian owner, whom the Justice Department has identified as billionaire Viktor Vekselberg .

Osipov has denied the allegations. Osipov’s attorney has said that the government has failed to demonstrate that Vekselberg owned the yacht, and that its management was therefore not a sanctions violation.

The reward offer for Osipov reflects the latest stage in the evolution of the West’s broader financial war against Russia two years into the war in Ukraine, as the United States and its allies increasingly target intermediaries accused of enabling Russian oligarchs to circumvent sanctions.

Many Russians close to President Vladimir Putin have been under sanctions dating to 2014, when Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and sent proxy forces into that country’s eastern Donbas region. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, President Biden vowed to deal a “crushing blow” with a barrage of new sanctions on financial institutions, industries, business executives and others tied to the Kremlin. But roughly two years later, Russia’s economy has proved surprisingly resilient after the nation poured tens of billions of dollars into ramping up its military industry. Moscow has also worked around the sanctions, finding new third parties to supply it with critical military and industrial hardware, as well as countries beyond Europe to buy its oil.

Now, the West is trying to increase the reach of its sanctions by digging deeper into Russian supply chains. Late last month, the Treasury Department announced more than 500 new sanctions targeting Russia , primarily on military and industrial suppliers. The Justice Department also announced charges against two U.S.-based “facilitators” of a Russian state banker who is under sanction, as well as the guilty plea of a dual national based in Atlanta who was accused of laundering $150 million through bank accounts and shell companies on behalf of Russian clients.

Prioritizing criminal charges against — and the arrests of — Western employees of Russia’s elites represents a new escalation of the U.S. financial war against Putin, experts say. One Moscow businessman, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said many influential Russians are concerned about the arrest of two associates of Andrey Kostin, the head of VTB, Russia’s second-biggest state bank. These associates, Vadim Wolfson and Gannon Bond, were charged with helping Kostin evade sanctions by maintaining a $12 million property in Aspen, Colo., for Kostin’s benefit while concealing his ownership. Kostin has said that the charges of sanctions evasion against him are “unfounded” and that he has not violated any laws . Bond has pleaded not guilty; Wolfson hasn’t made an initial court appearance yet.

Wolfson, also known as Vadim Belyaev, had been a Russian billionaire until the Russian government took over his bank in 2017. Bond, 49, is a U.S. citizen from Edgewater, N.J. For all Russians living abroad and working with people in Russia, the threat of criminal charges is a much more worrying prospect than the sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department last month against hundreds of individuals and entities, the businessman said, in part because sanctions are far easier to dodge than criminal charges.

“What you have seen through today’s public announcements are our efforts at really targeting the facilitators who possess the requisite skill set, access, connections that allow the Russian war machine [and] the Russian elites to continually have access to Western services and Western goods,” David Lim, co-director of the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture task force, which is tasked with enforcing U.S. sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, told reporters last month.

Thad McBride, an international trade partner at the law firm Bass Berry & Sims, said the crackdown on intermediaries reflected the natural evolution of the U.S. sanctions campaign in response to Russian adjustments.

“It seems to me they have gone through a comprehensive list of the oligarchs, and you can debate whether or not it’s had a meaningful impact on the Russian war effort,” McBride said. “Because they’re getting smarter about who’s who, they’re finding other people who play meaningful roles in these transactions, even though they’re not showing up in the headlines.”

The charges against Osipov related to his alleged management of the Tango yacht illustrate the mounting potential consequences for people in Europe and the United States who attempt to do business with Russians targeted by Western allies, as well as the opaque structures allegedly employed by those seeking to evade sanctions.

With a net worth estimated by Forbes in 2021 at $9 billion, Vekselberg, 66, has long drawn scrutiny from the West — and sought to safeguard his wealth. He made his initial fortune in aluminum and oil in Russia’s privatization of the 1990s and then expanded into industrial and financial assets in Europe, the United States and Africa, with Putin’s blessing. In addition to the yacht, federal prosecutors say, Vekselberg acquired $75 million worth of properties, including apartments on New York’s Park Avenue and an estate in the Long Island town of Southampton.

Vekselberg, who declined to comment for this article, has not been criminally charged by the Justice Department. In a 2019 interview with the Financial Times, he denounced the sanctions as arbitrary and harmful for international business, saying he had been targeted just because he was Russian and rich and knows Putin.

In April 2018, the Treasury Department under the Trump administration sanctioned Vekselberg and six other Russian oligarchs as part of broader financial penalties over the Kremlin’s invasion of Crimea, support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Vekselberg was also targeted for his work for the Kremlin as chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation, an attempt to create Russia’s version of the Silicon Valley — evidence that appeared to undermine the Russian businessman’s claims that he operated independently of the Kremlin.

But with Vekselberg’s payments monitored by U.S. banks, according to the federal indictment , Osipov used shell companies and intermediaries to avert the bite of sanctions. Vekselberg kept other major assets out of the reach of U.S. authorities by making use of the Treasury Department’s 50 percent ownership rule, which stipulates that it is illegal to transact with firms only if an owner under sanction controls more than 50 percent of the business.

For example, a month after Treasury imposed sanctions on Vekselberg in April 2018, his Renova Innovation Technologies sold its 48.5 percent stake in Swiss engineering giant Sulzer to Tiwel Holding AG, a group that is nevertheless still “beneficially owned” — meaning, owned in practice — by Vekselberg through Columbus Trust, a Cayman Islands trust, according to Sulzer’s corporate filing. Vekselberg’s longtime right-hand man at Renova, Alexei Moskov, replaced one of Vekselberg’s direct representatives on the board. Moskov told The Washington Post that he stepped down from all his executive positions at Renova Group in 2018 after U.S. sanctions were first imposed and from that moment ceased to be Vekselberg’s employee.

The attempts to circumvent the sanctions appear to have found some success in the U.S. legal system. Columbus Nova, a U.S.-based asset management fund controlling more than $100 million in assets in the U.S. financial and tech industry, is run by Vekselberg’s cousin, Andrew Intrater. The firm battled for more than two years to lift a freeze on Columbus Nova’s assets, imposed by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control because of the sanctions on Vekselberg, and won, reaching a settlement agreement with the Treasury Department. After renaming itself Sparrow Capital LLC, Columbus Nova successfully argued that Intrater — not Vekselberg — owns the fund. Intrater argued that the company was 100 percent owned by U.S. citizens and that no individual or entity under sanction held any interest in it. Intrater said Columbus Nova had earned fees for managing investment funds owned by Renova. He said he had repeatedly told Treasury he would not distribute any funds to Vekselberg.

Now Osipov, the alleged manager of Vekselberg’s $90 million yacht, is attempting a similar argument as U.S. authorities seek his arrest on charges of bank fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and violations of sanctions law.

The federal indictment states that the Tango was owned by a shell corporation registered in the British Virgin Islands that was in turn owned by several other companies. The Virgin Islands shell company, authorities say, was controlled by Osipov, who also served in senior roles for multiple companies controlled by Vekselberg. U.S. officials also say Vekselberg ultimately controlled the other companies that owned the Virgin Islands shell company.

According to the indictment, a Tango official instructed a boat management company in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to use a false name for the yacht — “Fanta” — to disguise its true identity from U.S. financial institutions and firms, which try to avoid doing business with an entity or person under sanction.

Working at Osipov’s direction, according to the indictment, employees for Tango bought more than $8,000 worth of goods for the yacht that were unwittingly but illegally processed by U.S. firms and U.S. financial institutions, including navigation software, leather basket magazine holders provided by a bespoke silversmith, and web and computing services. The management company running Tango, run by Osipov, also paid invoices worth more than $180,000 to a U.S. internet service provider, federal prosecutors say.

The Tango was seized by the FBI and Spanish authorities in the Mediterranean not long after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and Osipov was first indicted last year. The owner of the Spanish yacht management company hired by Osipov, Richard Masters, 52, of Britain, was criminally charged last year by federal prosecutors with conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal sanctions law. A request for comment sent to Masters’ firm was not returned.

But in recent court documents, Osipov’s attorney argues that the yacht was not more than 50 percent owned by Vekselberg, and that the government hasn’t demonstrated it was. Barry J. Pollack, an attorney at Harris, St. Laurent and Wechsler, also says the government never warned Osipov of its novel and “unconstitutional” application of federal sanctions law.

“The government points to no precedent that supports its extraordinary interpretation and cites no authority that allows the traditional rules of statutory construction to be turned on their head,” Pollack wrote in a defense filing. The filing adds: “[Osipov] is not a fugitive because he did not engage in any of the allegedly criminal conduct while in the United States, has never resided in the United States, did not flee from the United States, and has not concealed himself.”

Still, the State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program has said it will provide up to $1 million for information leading to Osipov’s arrest, warning that he may visit Herrliberg, Switzerland; Majorca, Spain; or Moscow.

The case demonstrates the extent of the U.S. commitment to tighten the screws on those seen as aiding Russian elites, even if they themselves are not closely tied to the Kremlin.

“When DOJ levels legal action against an individual or entity, they have quite a bit of evidence, especially because the threshold to press charges for money-laundering and sanctions evasion is so high,” said Kim Donovan, director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative within the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. “We’ve had quite a bit of experience targeting Russia directly, and what you’re starting to see is the U.S. go after the facilitators enabling sanctions evasion. That’s where the U.S. is focusing its efforts right now.”

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How monogrammed bathrobes led us to put a $1m bounty on russian yacht manager’s head.

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You can’t cover up the truth — not even in a luxury robe.

The US government is offering a reward of up to $1 million for a businessman who allegedly helped a Russian oligarch’s yacht circumvent sanctions — until the scheme was revealed by an order for monogrammed bathrobes.

Swiss-based businessman Vladislav Osipov, 52, is wanted on charges including bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy for his role as a high-level employee of billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, the Justice Department announced last month .

A few months after Vekselberg was sanctioned by the US government in April 2018, Osipov allegedly instructed a boat management firm in Spain to disguise his $90 million yacht, Tango, by referring to it as the Fanta, the federal indictment stated.

At Osipov’s instruction, yacht employees used the false name to buy thousands of dollars worth of goods and services that were processed by US companies and financial institutions that would otherwise have refused to do business with a sanctioned buyer, the document alleged.

In addition to navigation software, leather magazine holders and web services, the management company running the Tango shelled out over $180,000 to a US internet provider, the feds said.

But a smoking gun appeared on Sept. 3, 2020, with the purchase of $2,600 monogrammed luxury robes — that gave away the Fanta’s real name, Tango.

The company ordered a second set of robes the following year, which contained explicit instructions that the ship should be referred to as Fanta on the invoice, even though the robes themselves bore a different name, the indictment read.

The Tango was seized in the Mediterranean by the FBI and Spanish authorities shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Washington Post reported.

Osipov was initially indicted last year, documents showed. The owner of the Spanish management company, Richard Masters, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the US and violating federal sanctions, the Washington Post added .

As of late February, the Justice Department is offering up to $1 million for information leading to Osipov’s arrest.

The Swiss-based former Russian citizen may be in Herrliberg, Switzerland; Majorca, Spain; or Moscow, the feds warned.

The charges against Osipov are indicative of the government’s increased interest in expanding the reach of sanctions against Russian interests by targeting Western associates, the Washington Post suggested.

Just last month, the Justice Department announced charges against two stateside “facilitators” who supposedly helped Russian bank head Andrey Kostin conceal his ownership of a $12 million Aspen, Colo., property, the outlet noted.

The threat of criminal charges, the Washington Post said, is more concerning to Russians living and working in the West than the slew of Treasury Department sanctions.

“What you have seen through today’s public announcements are our efforts at really targeting the facilitators who possess the requisite skill set, access, connections that allow the Russian war machine [and] the Russian elites to continually have access to Western services and Western goods,” David Lim, co-director of the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture task force, said last month.

“It seems to me they have gone through a comprehensive list of the oligarchs, and you can debate whether or not it’s had a meaningful impact on the Russian war effort,” Thad McBride, an international trade partner at the law firm Bass Berry & Sims, told the Washington Post.

“Because they’re getting smarter about who’s who, they’re finding other people who play meaningful roles in these transactions, even though they’re not showing up in the headlines.”

Vekselberg, 66, has previously complained that he is unfairly targeted by US sanctions simply because he is Russian, wealthy, and connected with President Vladimir Putin, the newspaper said.

According to the documents, Osipov also helped Vekselberg use the shadow entities to circumvent the Treasury Department’s 50 percent ownership rule, which makes it illegal to do business with a firm if the sanctioned owner controls over 50 percent of the company.

Osipov’s attorney, Barry J. Pollack, argued that the Tango was not more than 50% owned by Vekselberg, and that the government’s application of the federal sanctions in this case was “unconstitutional.”

“The government points to no precedent that supports its extraordinary interpretation and cites no authority that allows the traditional rules of statutory construction to be turned on their head,” Pollack wrote in the opposition filing.

Pollack also insisted that his client is not a fugitive because he never engaged in illegal activity on US soil and never lived there.

Pollack did not immediately return The Post’s request for a comment.

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Andrei Skoch – Family, Family Tree

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Andrei Skoch is a billionaire businessman from Moscow, Russia. Born in 1965, he is a co-owner of Lebedinsky Mining, a metal extraction company. He is a self-made man who used to work for MontazhSpetsBank before entering the metal industry. Being ranked among some of the richest people in Russia, he continues increasing his profits with each passing year. In addition to being a businessman, he is also a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament and serves as an active politician.

He has created the Pokolenie Foundation as well, through which he sponsors a literary award for writers in Russia, Debut Prize, less than 25 years of age. He has donated more than $117 million for the restoration of Russian war monuments too.

Andrei Skoch Father: Vladimir

Andrei Skoch’s father, Vladimir, was not a famous personality and not much has been known of him, only for the fact that a large part of Andrei’s business is in the name of his father. In his childhood, Andrei had a humble upbringing. He joined the Institute of Physical Culture, Moscow to obtain a degree, and then starting working at the MontazhSpetsBank. Later, he partnered up in a metallurgy business with Alisher Usmanov, along with Lev Kvetnoi.

Andrei Skoch Wife: Elena Likhach-Skoch

Elena Likhach Skoch is Andrei’s current wife, who is also known for her beautiful figure and charming personality. She has given birth to Andrei’s four out of nine children, and she is pregnant for the 5 th time. Being the wife of one of the richest people in the world, she is living a fantastic life and has received a number of amazing rewards from her loving husband, including a flying jet that is kept just for her personal use. Currently, she attended the Cannes cinema event where her diamonds dazzled several Hollywood stars, including Natalie Portman.

Andrei Skoch Children

Andrei Skoch has nine children in total, and his wife is expecting the tenth. His first wife gave birth to quadruplets in 1994, who include three identical sisters, Sofia Skoch, Yulia Skoch and Aleksandra Skoch, and a son named Nikita Skoch. He has another child with his second wife, followed by four more with Elena. Currently, she is expecting the 10 th child of Andrei.

Andrei Skoch Net Worth

Andrei Skoch’s net worth has been estimated to be around $6.8 billion. He is ranked among the top 20 richest people in Russia, and top 300 in the world. His wealth comes from his business, and also from his political position. In addition to earning money, he is an extensive donator as well, and has donated millions for the good of his country and people. Despite being notoriously known for his political influence, he is a loving and caring father and husband for sure.