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Every Russian Oligarch Yacht Seized So Far—In Pictures

Before the invasion of Ukraine, the world was a playground for the Russian mega-rich.

Now, Russian oligarchs are struggling to hold on to their wealth, as their private jets and superyachts get seized and their properties impounded as a result of the heavy sanctions much of the world has imposed on the circle of billionaires around Vladimir Putin .

Since the European Union started imposing sanctions on an increasing number of Russian oligarchs, the list of luxury superyachts owned by Russian billionaires seized by authorities has steadily kept on growing.

Here's a breakdown.

On March 2, French authorities seized a yacht they said belonged to Rosneft's boss Igor Sechin in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat.

The owner of Amore Vero wasn't formally Sechin, but French authorities said they found him to be the main shareholder.

On the same day, news spread that German authorities had seized a luxury yacht owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. But German officials denied that the Dilbar , a $600 million yacht named after the billionaire's mother, had been seized in Hamburg.

The yacht, over 490 feet long and boasting an 80-foot swimming pool, two helipads and a garden, is now simply blocked in the northern port and is not allowed to leave.

Usmanov is one of the richest men in Russia and the world, with an estimated worth of $14.2 billion. The European Union has frozen his assets and described him as "pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin."

On March 14 in Barcelona, Spanish police seized a $140 million yacht belonging to Sergei Chemezov, a former KGB officer who now heads the state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec. Following the seizure, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised "there will be more."

The Valerie , a 280-foot yacht, is technically registered to Chemezov's stepdaughter Anastasia Ignatova. She is under U.S. sanctions, as is Chemezov and his wife.

The next day, Spanish authorities seized Lady Anastasia , reportedly owned by Alexander Mikheyev, in Mallorca. Mikheyev, director of Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport, is under EU sanctions.

A day later, Spain seized another yacht believed to belong to Sechin, the 440-foot-long Crescent , in the port of Tarragona in Catalonia.

Since the beginning of March, Italy has seized three yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs.

Lady M , owned by steel magnate Alexey Mordashov, Russia's richest man, was seized in the port of Imperia on the same day as Lena , belonging to oil and gas mogul Gennady Timchenko, was seized in the port of Sanremo.

Lady M , formally registered in the Cayman Islands, has been docked in Imperia since January. The yacht is equipped with a beauty salon and a helicopter pad.

Lena , registered in the British Virgin Islands, has been in Sanremo since November 2021.

On March 12, Italian authorities seized Andrey Melnichenko's Sailing Yacht A , a $580 million yacht docked at the port of Trieste. Coal and fertilizer magnate Melnichenko was sanctioned by the EU on March 9.

The Ragnar , another superyacht owned by Russian oligarch and former KGB agent Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, wasn't confiscated, but it's stuck in Norway because nobody will sell it fuel to leave.

According to Croatian media reports, Viktor Medvedchuk's 300-foot mega yacht, The Royal Romance, was seized in the bay of Rijeka on Wednesday. Medvedchuk is leader of Ukraine's main pro-Russia party.

More yachts owned by Russian oligarchs and currently docked around Europe could yet be seized, as not all billionaires have been sanctioned by the EU and the ownership of some yachts is yet to be determined.

Those Russian oligarchs whose yachts haven't been seized are scrambling to take them far away from the grasp of European authorities, although they're running out of safe havens to hide their luxury vessels.

At least five Russian billionaires have moved their yachts to the Maldives as the EU imposed sanctions, ship-tracking data has shown. In early March, five superyachts were reportedly harbored in the Maldives, which doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs and housing. She has covered the ups and downs of the U.S. housing market extensively, as well as given in-depth insights into the unfolding war in Ukraine. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate of Nottingham Trent University. Languages: English, Italian, French.

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From yachts to lavish estates, tracking Russian assets seized so far

By Tal Yellin , CNN

Published April 13, 2022

Updated April 27, 2022

Countries are on the hunt for sanctioned Russian assets after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Thousands of Russians have since been sanctioned by the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, among others. Superyachts and multimillion-dollar properties have already been seized or frozen by authorities in Italy, France, Spain, the UK and Gibraltar. The United States has also launched KleptoCapture, a task force focused on those who violate sanctions and the seizing of their assets.

This interactive will continue to track known developments and help show where sanctioned Russians park their money outside of Russia. Except for Igor Sechin and Sergei Chemezov, no other oligarchs or related persons mentioned in this story responded to requests for comment from CNN.

Real estate

Other assets

April 14, 2022

“dilbar”  linked to    alisher usmanov   valued at $600-$750 million in hamburg, germany.

Germany has impounded the “Dilbar,” a superyacht connected to a Russian oligarch in Hamburg, the country’s embassy in the US tweeted . The yacht belongs to the sister of Alisher Usmanov and is worth between $600 to $750 million, according to the German Federal Criminal Police Office. Usmanov is one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires with vast domestic and international holdings. The US government sanctioned him in early March in a campaign targeting Putin’s allies, stating Usmanov is alleged to have “financial ties” to Putin. In March, Italy’s financial police seized his real estate and assets worth about $90 million. Usmanov has also been sanctioned by the European Union.

April 12, 2022

Assets  linked to    roman abramovich   valued at over $7 billion in jersey.

Authorities in the Channel island of Jersey froze more than $7 billion worth of assets “suspected to be connected to” Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, according to a government statement . The frozen assets are either located in Jersey or owned by Jersey incorporated entities, the statement said. The States of Jersey Police also executed search warrants on premises “connected to the business activities” of Abramovich. Abramovich made his fortune in steel and investments and was sanctioned by the UK in March, citing his decades-long relationship with Vladimir Putin. In a statement at the time , the UK government noted that “he is one of the few oligarchs from the 1990s to maintain prominence under Putin.” These frozen assets represent around half his net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index .

April 11, 2022

Properties  linked to    nikita mazepin   valued at $114.3 million in sardinia, italy.

A real estate compound, “Rocky Ram,” linked to Nikita Mazepin and his oligarch father Dmitry was seized in Sardinia, the Italian financial police confirmed in a statement. The police said the properties are worth 105 million euros (about $114.3 million). Nikita, a former Formula 1 Haas team driver, and his father were included on a list of individuals sanctioned by the EU in early March. The sanction list described Mazepin Sr. as “a member of the closest circle of Vladimir Putin” saying he and 36 other ”businesspeople” met with Putin and other government officials to discuss how sanctions would affect Russia. In early March, Mazepin Sr. sold his controlling stake in Uralchem Group, one of the largest producers of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers in Russia, and resigned as CEO from Uralchem JSC, a subsidiary, according to a company statement .

April 7, 2022

Assets  linked to    sanctioned russians   valued at $7.83 billion in switzerland.

Switzerland has so far frozen 7.5 billion Swiss francs (about $7.83 billion) of sanctioned Russian assets, according to a State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) spokesperson. The number of frozen assets increased from March 24, when 5.75 billion Swiss francs (about $6.18 billion) were initially frozen. Frozen assets include 11 properties throughout Switzerland. No identifiable information was revealed and no specific assets were mentioned in the initial statement. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland broke from traditional neutrality and adopted EU sanctions.

April 5, 2022

Assets  linked to    sanctioned russians   valued at $3 billion in belgium.

Belgian authorities have frozen $3 billion in Russian assets and blocked $215 billion in transactions since the start of economic sanctions, according to Belgian Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem. The frozen assets belong to 877 individuals and 62 entities on the European sanctions list, according to the statement from the Belgian Finance Ministry. The blocked transactions are the result of other restrictions imposed by the European Union on Russia.

April 4, 2022

“tango”  linked to    viktor vekselberg   valued at $90 million in mallorca, spain.

Spanish authorities seized a superyacht named “Tango,” which they say is owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Mallorca, according to a statement from the Spanish Civil Guard. The detained yacht was part of an operation with US federal agents and was carried out under a Spanish court order, the statement said. Vekselberg runs the Russian investment company Renova Group. He is worth approximately $16.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He was sanctioned by the United States and is “under investigation for tax fraud, money laundering and document forgery trying to hide the ownership of this superyacht to avoid sanctions” and is “very close to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin,” the Spanish Civil Guard said. Vekselberg’s case marks the first seizure for the newly formed US task force, KleptoCapture. The yacht is 78 meters long (about 256 feet) and is valued at nearly $90 million, per the US Department of Justice.

March 29, 2022

“phi”  linked to    a russian businessman   valued at $50 million in london, england.

The United Kingdom detained the “Phi” yacht belonging to an unnamed-Russian businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime, according to the UK Department for Transport. The Dutch-built vessel is docked in East London’s Canary Wharf for the superyacht awards, and was planning to depart March 29. The Department of Transport claims that the ownership of the boat was “deliberately well hidden.” It sails under the Maltese flag and is registered to a company based in the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis. The 192-foot yacht is worth approximately £38 million (about $50 million).

March 23, 2022

Assets  linked to    sanctioned russians   valued at $800 million in france.

French authorities have frozen assets linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs valued at $800 million, according to French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal. The European Union’s latest round of sanctions in early March against Russia included measures targeting 160 oligarchs and Russian politicians. “There will be no taboo if we need to go further,” Attal said about any additional sanctions.

March 22, 2022

Assets  linked to    sanctioned russians   valued at $431 million in the netherlands.

The Netherlands has frozen nearly 392 million euros (about $431 million) in Russian assets, the Dutch Ministry of Finance told parliament in a letter seen by CNN. The ministry said that further asset freezes were expected. The European Union’s latest round of sanctions in early March against Russia included measures targeting 160 oligarchs and Russian politicians.

March 21, 2022

“axioma”  linked to    dmitry pumpyansky   valued at $75 million in gibraltar.

Authorities in Gibraltar have detained the “Axioma” yacht linked to Russian billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky, according to UK and Gibraltar government statements. Pumpyansky was sanctioned by the EU and UK and was the beneficiary of TMK PAO, Russia’s largest oil and gas steel pipe maker. He also resigned from the TMK PAO’s board of directors, the company announced . The 240-foot yacht is worth approximately $75 million, according to SuperYachtFan . Gibraltar’s ports had been closed to sanctioned individuals, but the Captain of the Port made an exception after JPMorgan Chase was granted a court order authorizing the seizure. “JPMorgan is acting pursuant to its mortgage rights,” the Gibraltar government said in a statement to CNN. JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, said in a statement in early March it was getting out of Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, citing “compliance with directives by governments around the world.”

March 18, 2022

Real estate  linked to    alexey mordaschov   valued at $116 million in sardinia, italy.

The Italian financial police seized a real estate complex belonging to Russian billionaire Alexey Mordaschov in Sardinia, according to Italy’s Prime Minister’s office. Mordaschov is the chairman of Russian mining and steel company Severstal and is one of Russia’s richest men, worth $18.5 billion, according to Forbes . The frozen real estate is worth around 105 million euros (about $116 million), per Ferdinando Giugliano, the media advisor to the Italian Prime Minister. On March 4, Mordaschov’s yacht, named “Lady M” was also seized in Italy. The 213-foot yacht is worth approximately 65 million euros (about $71 million).

March 16, 2022

“crescent”  linked to    an unknown owner   valued at $600 million in tarragona, spain.

Spanish authorities have detained a superyacht, named “Crescent” in the port of Tarragona, according to a statement from Spain’s Ministry for Transport. The 135-meter yacht flies a Cayman Islands flag and has been “provisionally detained” to establish whether it is the possession of a person or entity included in the European Council’s package of sanctions, the statement said. The yacht cost approximately $600 million, according to SuperYachtFan.

Real estate  linked to    Petr Aven   valued at $4.4 million in Sardinia, Italy

The Italian financial police froze a real estate complex belonging partially to Russian oligarch Petr Aven in Sardinia, according to a statement issued by Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s press office. The share of real estate is worth approximately 4 million euros (about $4.4 million), according to the Italian Prime Minister’s office. The billionaire stepped down earlier this month as Director of Russian private bank Alfa Bank and from the board of the investment firm he co-founded, LetterOne, after being sanctioned by the EU and UK . The European Union named Aven as “one of Vladimir Putin’s closest oligarchs,” who “regularly meet” with the Russian President in the Kremlin, and “does not operate independently of the President’s demands.”

Real estate and vehicles  linked to    Alisher Usmanov   valued at $72 million in Italy

Real estate assets and six corporate vehicles belonging to Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov were seized by the Italian financial police. The seized assets are worth approximately 66 million euros (about $72 million). Usmanov is one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires with vast domestic and international holdings. The US government sanctioned him in early March in a campaign targeting Putin’s allies, stating he is alleged to have financial ties to Putin. Italy’s financial police had previously seized his real estate in the Golfo del Pevero area in Arzachena on March 4. Those assets are worth approximately 17 million euros (about $18 million).

March 15, 2022

“lady anastasia”  linked to    alexander mikheev   valued at $7 million in palma de mallorca, spain.

Spanish authorities have detained a yacht linked to Russian oligarch Alexander Mikheev, named “Lady Anastasia,” in the port of Palma de Mallorca, according to the Spanish Ministry of Transport. Mikheev is the CEO of Rosoboronexport, the only state organization in Russia that exports weapons and was sanctioned by the EU and the US. The yacht is nearly 48 meters (157 feet) long and was in the news in late February, when a crew member tried to sink the vessel in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The yacht is worth approximately $7 million, according to a listing on BOAT International.

“Valerie”  linked to    Sergei Chemezov   valued at $140 million in Barcelona, Spain

Spanish authorities seized the “Valerie” yacht reportedly linked to Russian oligarch and former KGB agent Sergei Chemezov in the port of Barcelona, according to Reuters . Chemezov is the chairman of the Rostec conglomerate and a member of the Supreme Council of ‘United Russia’, per EU sanctions . When the US sanctioned Chemezov in 2014 — as part of an effort targeting Putin’s inner circle — the government said he had known Putin since the 1980s and the two lived in the same apartment complex in East Germany. The yacht is worth approximately $140 million and will remain “provisionally immobilized” until authorities can determine its ownership. A spokesman for Chemezov denied that he is tied to the yacht.

March 11, 2022

“sailing yacht a”  linked to    andrey melnichenko   valued at $577 million in trieste, italy.

The Italian financial police seized “Sailing Yacht A” — which could be linked to Russian fertilizer and coal billionaire Andrey Melnichenko — in the port of Trieste, according to Ferdinando Giugliano, the media advisor to the Italian Prime Minister. Melnichenko was sanctioned by the EU on March 9 and has since removed himself from the boards of two companies he founded, Eurochem and SUEK, according to his spokesman Alex Andreev in a statement to CNN. At 469 feet long, the vessel is also the world’s tallest sailing yacht — taller than the Statue of Liberty — and is worth approximately 530 million euros (about $577 million).

March 4, 2022

“villa lazzareschi”  linked to    oleg savchenko   valued at $3.3 million in lucca, italy.

A 17th century villa allegedly owned by Oleg Savchenko, named “Villa Lazzareschi,” was seized by Italian financial police in the province of Lucca, according to a police statement . Savchenko is a member of the State Duma and was sanctioned by the EU. The seized Italian villa is worth approximately 3 million euros (about $3.3 million).

Real estate  linked to    Vladimir Soloviev   valued at $8.7 million in Como, Italy

Real estate properties belonging to Vladimir Soloviev were seized by the Italian financial police in the province of Como, according to a police statement . Soloviev is a Russian pro-Kremlin propagandist and TV/radio journalist, according to EU Council sanctions . The frozen Italian real estate is worth approximately 8 million euros (about $8.7 million).

Real estate  linked to    Alisher Usmanov   valued at $18 million in Arzachena, Italy

A real estate compendium belonging to Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov was seized by the Italian financial police in the Golfo del Pevero area in Arzachena, according to a statement . The frozen Italian real estate is worth approximately 17 million euros (about $18 million).

Usmanov is one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires with vast domestic and international holdings, according to the US Treasury. The US government sanctioned him in early March in a campaign targeting Putin’s allies, stating he is alleged to have financial ties to Putin. The US said it sanctioned his private jet and his 512-foot superyacht named “Dilbar.”

“Lena”  linked to    Gennady Timchenko   valued at $55 million in San Remo, Italy

The Italian financial police seized Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko’s yacht, named “Lena,” in the port of San Remo, according to a police statement . Timchenko is the owner of private investment group, Volga Group. He was sanctioned by the EU in February. When the US government sanctioned Timchenko in 2014, an effort targeting Putin’s inner circle, they stated his “activities in the energy sector have been directly linked to Putin.” The 126-foot yacht is worth approximately 50 million euros (about $55 million).

“Lady M”  linked to    Alexey Mordaschov   valued at $71 million in Imperia, Italy

The Italian financial police seized Russian billionaire Alexey Mordaschov’s yacht, named “Lady M,” in the northern port of Imperia, according to a police statement . Mordaschov is the chairman of Russian mining and steel company Severstal and is one of Russia’s richest men, worth $18.5 billion, according to Forbes . The 213-foot yacht is worth approximately 65 million euros (about $71 million).

March 3, 2022

“amore vero”  linked to    igor sechin   valued at $120 million in la ciotat, france.

French authorities seized a yacht linked to Igor Sechin in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat, according to the French Finance Ministry . Sechin is the CEO of Rosneft, the Russian state oil company and one of the world’s largest crude oil producers. The yacht, named “Amore Vero” — or “True Love” in Italian — was scheduled to leave the port on April 1 after arriving in January. Sechin was deputy prime minister of Russia from 2008 until 2012. The European Union said his connections to Putin are “long and deep,” with the two men maintaining daily contact. The yacht is worth about $120 million, according to SuperYachtFan. A Sechin spokesman denied that he is tied to the yacht.

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U.S. seizes large yacht in Spain owned by oligarch with close ties to Putin

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The U.S. government Monday seized a mega-yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin — the first vessel to be taken under Washington’s sanctions effort to “seize and freeze” giant boats and other pricey assets belonging to Russian elites .

Spain’s Civil Guard and U.S. federal agents descended on the yacht at the Marina Real in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Associated Press reporters at the scene saw police going in and out of the boat Monday morning.

The joint operation to seize the yacht, by Spain’s Civil Guard, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, was carried out at the request of U.S. authorities, the Civil Guard said.

A Civil Guard source told the Associated Press that the seized yacht is the Tango, a 254-foot vessel that carries a Cook Islands flag and that Superyachtfan.com, a website that tracks the world’s largest and most exclusive recreational boats, values at $120 million. The source was not authorized to be named in media reports and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close Putin ally who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. All of Vekselberg’s assets in the U.S. are frozen, and U.S. companies are forbidden from doing business with him and his entities.

While Vekselberg has not been sanctioned by the European Union , he is under investigation in the U.S. for possible tax fraud, money laundering and falsifying documents precisely to hide the ownership of the yacht, the Civil Guard said in a statement.

Where do you hide a 500-foot yacht? Asking for an oligarch

A sanctions regime aimed at putting pressure on Russia’s wealthiest citizens has put a spotlight on the global mega-yacht trade.

March 3, 2022

The move is the first time the U.S. government has seized an oligarch’s yacht since Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen assembled a task force known as REPO — short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs — to enforce sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

Vekselberg has long had ties to the U.S., including a green card he once held and homes in New York and Connecticut. The Ukrainian-born businessman built his fortune by investing in the aluminum and oil industries in the post-Soviet era.

Vekselberg was also questioned during special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and has worked closely with his American cousin, Andrew Intrater, who heads the New York investment management firm Columbus Nova.

Vekselberg and Intrater were thrust into the spotlight in the Mueller probe after the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels released a memo claiming that $500,000 in hush money was routed through Columbus Nova to a shell company set up by former President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Columbus Nova denied that Vekselberg played any role in its payments to Cohen.

Palaces, super-yachts, Swiss accounts. How rich is Putin and can sanctions hurt him?

The Russian president is believed to be very wealthy, but his assets are in the name of relatives, associates and friendly oligarchs.

Vekselberg and Intrater met with Cohen at Trump Tower, one of several meetings between members of Trump’s inner circle and high-level Russians during the 2016 campaign and transition.

The 64-year-old Vekselberg founded Renova Group more than three decades ago. The group holds the largest stake in United Co. Rusal, Russia’s biggest aluminum producer, among other investments.

Vekselberg was first sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 and again last month, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began. Vekselberg has also been sanctioned by Britain.

The yacht sails under a Cook Islands flag and is owned by a company that is registered in the British Virgin Islands and administered by different societies in Panama , the Civil Guard said, “following a complicated financial and societal web to conceal its truthful ownership.”

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Agents confiscated documents and computers inside the yacht that will be analyzed to confirm the real identity of the owner, the Civil Guard said.

The White House has said that many allied countries, including German, Britain, France, Italy and others are involved in trying to collect and share information about Russians targeted for sanctions. In his State of the Union address , President Biden warned oligarchs that the U.S. and its European allies would “find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets.”

“We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” he said.

Monday’s capture is not the first time Spanish authorities have been involved in the seizure of a Russian oligarch’s yacht. Officials previously said that they had seized a vessel valued at more than $140 million and owned by a close Putin ally who runs a state defense conglomerate.

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French authorities have also seized super-yachts, including one believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft , which has been on the U.S. sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Italy has also seized several yachts and other assets.

Italian financial police moved quickly to seize the super-yacht Lena, which belongs to Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin, in the port of San Remo; the 215-foot Lady M, owned by Alexei Mordashov in nearby Imperia, featuring six suites and estimated to be worth $71.5 million; as well as villas in Tuscany and Como, according to government officials.

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The US just sanctioned Imperial Yachts, the company reportedly at the center of the extravagant lifestyles of Russian oligarchs at sea

• The US sanctioned Imperial Yachts, a full-service international yachting company, on Thursday. 
• The company has worked with Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the US, the Treasury alleges. 
• "The accusations made against us by the U.S. Government and in the press are false," the company told Insider in a statement.

The US Treasury announced a new round of Russian sanctions Thursday aimed at further penalizing the country's elite following the invasion of Ukraine. 

The latest sanctions include luxury yachting company Imperial Yachts, a brokerage led by Russian CEO Evgeniy Kochman that has provided management services to at least one yacht linked to a sanctioned Russian oligarch, the department alleges. 

The designation comes a day after The New York Times published an investigation into the corporate benefactors of Russia's elite, whose immense wealth has fallen under international scrutiny in recent months. 

At the heart of the investigation was Imperial Yachts, which describes itself as a "360-degree" maritime service that handles everything from yacht financing, design, and construction to management, maintenance, and marketing.

The company has been connected to superyachts linked to high-profile Russians including Vladimir Putin, Igor Sechin, and Gennady Timchenko, according to the NYT report. All three individuals are sanctioned by the US. 

Related stories

In response to the sanctions, an Imperial Yachts spokesperson told Insider the company has been "targeted by numerous unfounded and inaccurate accusations following events that are unrelated to this family owned company and its services." 

"The accusations made against us by the U.S. Government and in the press are false," the spokesperson said. "We will pursue all available legal remedies to resolve this matter promptly."

"Imperial Yachts conducts all its businesses in full compliance with laws and regulations in all jurisdictions in which we operate. We are not involved in our clients' financial affairs," the statement continued.

To describe the yachting company as "full service" is not an overstatement, as evidenced by court filings and emails obtained by the Times.

Company documents show records of highly specific guest preferences, such as coffee served in an Hermès mug, dates and berry bowls prepped for every meal, a "babyccino" with one teaspoon of espresso and steamed milk, and porridge with honey drizzled on top each morning. 

Imperial Yacht's largest yacht currently available for charter, "Flying Fox," was also blocked by Thursday's sanctions. The Treasury additionally targeted multiple yachts with suspected links to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

"Russia's elites, up to and including President Putin, rely on complex support networks to hide, move, and maintain their wealth and luxury assets," Brian Nelson, the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a press release Thursday. 

"Today's action demonstrates that Treasury can and will go after those responsible for shielding and maintaining these ill-gotten interests," he continued.

Watch: The rise and fall of Russian oligarchs

• Main content

US Seizes Super Yacht ‘Tango' Owned by Oligarch With Close Ties to Putin From Spanish Port

The doj alleges in a warrant the yacht should be forfeited because billionaire viktor vekselberg violated u.s. bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions statutes, by francisco ubilla, aritz parra and michael balsamo • published april 4, 2022.

The U.S. government on Monday seized a 254-foot yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a first by the Biden administration under sanctions imposed after the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine and targeting pricey assets of Russian elites.

Spain's Civil Guard and U.S. federal agents descended on the Tango at the Marina Real in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Associated Press reporters at the scene saw police going in and out of the boat.

The U.S. Justice Department, which obtained a warrant from a federal judge in Washington, alleges the yacht should be forfeited for violating U.S. bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions statutes.

Superyachtfan.com , a specialized website that tracks the world’s largest and most exclusive recreational boats, values the 78-meter vessel, which carries the Cook Islands flag, at $120 million.

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The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close Putin ally who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents .

All of Vekselberg’s assets in the United States are frozen and American companies are barred from doing business with him and his entities. The Ukrainian-born businessman built his fortune by investing in the aluminum and oil industries in the post-Soviet era.

Prosecutors allege Vekselberg bought the Tango in 2011 and has owned it since then, though they believe he has used shell companies to try to obfuscate his ownership and to avoid financial oversight.

They contend Vekselberg and those working for him continued to make payments using U.S. banks to support and maintain the yacht, even after sanctions were imposed on him in 2018. Those payments included a stay in December 2020 at a luxury water villa resort in the Maldives and fees to moor the yacht.

It's the first U.S. seizure of an oligarch’s yacht since U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen assembled a task force known as REPO — short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs — as an effort to enforce sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

"It will not be the last,” Garland said in a statement. “Together, with our international partners, we will do everything possible to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war.”

Vekselberg has long had ties to the U.S., including a green card he once held and homes in New York and Connecticut. He was also questioned in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and has worked closely with his American cousin, Andrew Intrater, who heads the New York investment management firm Columbus Nova.

Vekselberg and Intrater were thrust into the spotlight in that investigation after the lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels released a memo that claimed $500,000 in hush money was routed through Columbus Nova to a shell company set up by Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Columbus Nova denied that Vekselberg played any role in its payments to Cohen.

Vekselberg and Intrater met with Cohen at Trump Tower, one of several meetings between members of Trump's inner circle and high-level Russians during Trump's 2016 campaign and the transition before his presidency.

The 64-year-old Vekselberg founded Renova Group more than three decades ago. The group holds the largest stake in United Co. Rusal, Russia’s biggest aluminum producer, among other investments.

Vekselberg was first sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018, and again in March of this year, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began. Vekselberg has also been sanctioned by authorities in the United Kingdom.

The yacht sails under the Cook Islands flag and is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands administered by different societies in Panama, the Civil Guard said, “following a complicated financial and societal web to conceal its truthful ownership.”

Agents confiscated documents and computers inside the yacht that will be analyzed to confirm he real identity of the owner, it said.

The U.S. Justice Department has also launched a sanctions enforcement task force known as KleptoCapture, which also aims to enforce financial restrictions in the U.S. imposed on Russia and its billionaires, working with the FBI, the U.S. Treasury and other federal agencies. That task force will also target financial institutions and entities that have helped oligarchs move money to dodge sanctions.

The White House has said that many allied countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and others are involved in trying to collect and share information against Russians targeted for sanctions. In his State of the Union address on March 1, President Joe Biden warned oligarchs that the U.S. and European allies would “find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets.”

“We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” he said.

Monday's capture is not the first time Spanish authorities have been involved in the seizure of a Russian oligarch’s superyacht. Officials said they had seized a vessel valued at over $140 million owned by the CEO of a state-owned defense conglomerate and a close Putin ally.

French authorities have seized superyachts, including one believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the U.S. sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Italy has seized several yachts and other assets.

Italian financial police moved quickly seizing the superyacht Lena belonging to Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin, in the port of San Remo; the 65-meter (215-foot) Lady M owned by Alexei Mordashov in nearby Imperia, featuring six suites and estimated to be worth 65 million euros; as well as villas in Tuscany and Como, according to government officials.

Parra reported from Madrid and Balsamo reported from Washington.

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The U.S. Seizes a Russian Oligarch Yacht

Here’s all the boats taken so far..

In early March, a European vogue for seizing Russian oligarch yachts swept the world. And then the fad stopped — until now . This morning, observers reported Spanish police and the FBI entering Tango , a yacht docked in the stunning harbor of Palma de Mallorca. Tango is owned by Viktor Vekselberg , a friend of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. Here, to our knowledge, are all the boats seized so far in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine .

Owner : Viktor Vekselberg. Seized by : The United States, in its first high-seas adventure, in cooperation with Spanish authorities, who have become experts in the taking of big boats. The U.S. sanctioned “Kremlin insider” Vekselberg, who has a U.S. green card and residences in the New York City area, in early March. It’s also after his plane, an Airbus A319. On: ~ April 4. Current location: Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Owner: Vladimir Strzhalkovsky. Seized by: It’s not technically seized, and its owner is not on the E.U. sanction list even. But the big sleek boat is in Norway and everyone is refusing to give it fuel . So it’s … stranded? Beached? On: March 16. Current location: Narvik.

Owner: Igor Sechin, most probably (people like to say Putin owns this boat, is why we say that). Former Putin deputy and former head of Russian state oil company; also, he’s single! Seized by: Spain. On: Possibly March 4, but widely announced March 16. Current suspected location: Tarragona , Catalonia.

Lady Anastasia

Owner: Alexander Mikheyev. Runs the helicopters division of a subsidiary of Rostec; the yacht just survived an attack last month by a Ukrainian sailor. He told the crew to abandon ship and then tried to sink it. “I don’t regret anything I’ve done,” he said. ( He was arrested .) Seized by: Spain. On: March 15. Last location: Calvia, a Mallorca marina.

Owner: Sergei Chemezov. KGB man, Putin pal from Dresden, CEO of Rostec; barred from entering the U.S. since 2014 (whom among us). Seized: March 14. By: Spain. Location: Barcelona.

Sailing Yacht A

Owner: Andrey Melnichenko. Made his riches in banking and fertilizer; certainly a billionaire; once hired Jennifer Lopez to do a private concert for his wife’s birthday. Has another extremely large boat, the Motor Yacht A , which we’re keeping an eye on. Seized: ~ March 11 . By: Italy. Suspected current location: Trieste.

Owner: Alexei Mordashov. They like to call him Russia’s richest man, because he probably is (we say “probably” because Putin kind of owns everything); has another very nice boat, Nord , but it’s in Seychelles, where it won’t be grabbed … at this time. Seized by: Italy. On: ~ March 4. Suspected current location: Imperia.

Owner: Igor Sechin. Sometimes you need two boats, after all. (Then you have none.) Seized by: France. On: March 3. Current location: La Ciotat.

Owner: Gennady Timchenko. When your friend (Putin) gives you a license to enrich yourself in the oil trade, what could go wrong? Besides being sanctioned since 2014 . Seized by: Italy. On: ~March 5. Current location: Sanremo.

Owner: Alisher Usmanov. Seized by: Germany. On: March 3 (?). Current location: Hamburg? Status: Dilbar is either seized or frozen; at the very least, the staff ( 96 of them ) wasn’t able to be paid and so the boat is effectively impounded no matter what.

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Italy seizes oligarchs' villas and yachts to put pressure on Russia

ROME (REUTERS) - Italian police have seized villas and yachts worth €143 million (S$200 million) from five high-profile Russians who were placed on sanctions lists following Moscow's attack on Ukraine, the government said on Saturday (March 5).

The luxury properties were sequestered in some of Italy's most prestigious retail estate locations - the island of Sardinia, by Lake Como and in Tuscany - while two superyachts were grabbed at their moorings in northern ports.

The police operations were part of a coordinated drive by Western states to penalise wealthy Russians and try to force President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine.

A list issued by Prime Minister Mario Draghi's office showed the most valuable asset now in police hands is a 65m-long yacht, the Lady M, which has a price tag of €65 million and belonged to Russia's richest man, Alexey Mordashov.

It was impounded in the port of Imperia.

A second luxury vessel, the Lena, was seized in the nearby port of Sanremo. It was worth some €50 million and was owned by Gennady Timchenko, whom Putin has described as one of his closet associates.

Billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov had a villa worth €17 million seized on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, while Oleg Savchenko, a member of the Russian parliament, had his 17th century house near the Tuscan city of Lucca, worth some €3 million, taken from him.

An undisclosed number of properties valued at €8 million were confiscated in Como from state TV host Vladimir Soloviev, who reportedly complained on Russian television when he found out last month he risked losing his Italian villas.

"But you told us that Europe has sacred property rights," he was quoted saying by The Daily Beast.

Russian oligarchs have bought numerous villas in choice Italian settings over the past 20 years and sources have said more assets are expected to be seized in coming days.

Uzbekistan-born metals and telecoms tycoon Usmanov is well known in Italy for owning multiple properties on Sardinia, while Italian media say Mordashov owned a villa worth some €66 million on the same island.

Taking into account the assets of his whole family, Forbes magazine estimates that Mordashov had an estimated net worth of US$29.1 billion (S$39.5 billion) before sanctions hit.

Mirko Idili, a coordinator of the CISL union in Sardinia, has warned that the sanctions and a reduced presence of rich Russians this summer could negatively affect the island's economy and put more than 1,000 jobs at risk.

Italian banks were instructed by the Bank of Italy's financial intelligence division on Friday to urgently let it know of all measures taken to freeze the assets of people and entities placed on the EU list.

Follow The Straits Times' live coverage on the Ukraine crisis here.

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The Middlemen at the Heart of an Oligarch-Industrial Complex

They oversee the flow of billions of dollars from Putin-connected Russians to companies involved in superyachts and villas. They’ve drawn the attention of a U.S. task force.

Credit... Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg

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By Michael Forsythe ,  Gaia Pianigiani and Julian E. Barnes

• June 1, 2022

On Feb. 24, as Russian troops poured into Ukraine on Day 1 of the invasion, an employee of a yacht management company sent an email to the captain of the Amadea, a $325 million superyacht: “Importance: High.”

The family of a Russian oligarch under sanctions had spent much of January and February cruising from island to island in the Caribbean and had some questions and concerns. When would be a good time to visit New Zealand? Bali? Could the yacht get a special boat to pull water skiers? And would the staff of the Amadea please stop folding napkins in triangles? “Guests don’t like it,” wrote the employee, Victoria Pastukhova, a “client coordinator” for the company, Imperial Yachts.

At Imperial Yachts, no detail is too small to sweat. Based in Monaco, with a staff of about 100 — plus 1,200 to 1,500 crew members aboard yachts — the company caters to oligarchs whose fortunes turn on the decisions of President Vladimir V. Putin. Imperial Yachts and its Moscow-born founder, Evgeniy Kochman, have prospered by fulfilling their clients’ desires to own massive luxury ships.

For a Russian with hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, Mr. Kochman’s company takes care of everything: It oversees construction, hires the crew, manages the vessel’s day-to-day operation and can charter the ship or sell it, if need be. Another company also run by Mr. Kochman, BLD Management , performs a similar service for villas.

Imperial’s rise has benefited an array of businesses across Europe, including German shipbuilders, Italian carpenters, French interior design firms and Spanish marinas , which together employ thousands of people. Imperial Yachts is at the center of what is essentially an oligarch-industrial complex, overseeing the flow of billions of dollars from politically connected Russians to that network of companies, according to interviews, court documents and intelligence reports.

Imperial Yachts and BLD are now under scrutiny by a U.S. government task force, called KleptoCapture, that is trying to disrupt the Russian war machine by going after the assets of oligarchs tied to Mr. Putin. After some high-profile raids and seizures, the Americans are focusing on the network of enablers working outside of Russia. Investigators from the F.B.I., the Treasury and several intelligence agencies are gathering evidence showing that businesses and individuals knowingly aided Russians under sanctions whose wealth came through corruption, making them vulnerable to U.S. charges.

Andrew Adams, a federal prosecutor leading the task force, said in an interview that “targeting people who make their living by providing a means for money laundering is a key priority.”

Documents obtained from the Amadea by U.S. officials show the role Imperial Yachts plays in managing the myriad requests of stunningly rich, seaborne Russians. The Amadea is now in Fiji, where American officials are fighting a court battle to take possession of the yacht. Mr. Adams said that Russian superyachts that don’t find a buyer may be sold to salvagers for their pricey fittings: gold-plated bathroom fixtures , marble, inlaid floors made of rare wood.

In pursuing the enablers, American and European investigators have confronted a deliberately confusing ownership structure involving daisy chains of shell companies stretching from the Marshall Islands to Switzerland. Along with the Amadea, Imperial Yachts oversaw the construction of the Scheherazade, a $700 million superyacht that U.S. officials say is linked to Mr. Putin, and the Crescent, which the Spanish police believe is owned by Igor Sechin, chairman of the state-owned oil giant Rosneft.

A secret U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that the money to build the ships came from a group of investors led by Gennady Timchenko, a confidant of Mr. Putin and one of Russia’s richest men, who, like Mr. Sechin, has been under U.S. sanctions since 2014. Mr. Timchenko and his partners designed the Scheherazade — seized in early May by the Italian police — as a gift for Mr. Putin’s use, according to the assessment. Together, the three vessels may have cost as much as $1.6 billion, enough to buy six new frigates for the Russian navy.

Simon Clark, a lawyer for Imperial Yachts, said that the company “is unaware of any connection between our business and Mr. Timchenko. However, we are in the yacht-building business; we are not involved in our clients’ financial affairs.” Mr. Clark added that the company has “never conducted business or provided services to any parties subject to international sanctions.”

But U.S. officials are not buying such explanations. Elizabeth Rosenberg, the assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes at the Treasury Department, said it was the responsibility of people in the yacht services industry to avoid doing business with people under sanctions.

“And if you do,” she said, “you yourself will be subject to sanctions.”

Courting Russia’s Wealthiest

Mr. Kochman, 41, got his start in the yacht business in Russia in 2001, the year after Mr. Putin took power, selling Italian-made yachts . Russia had been through a decade of turmoil after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and many of today’s oligarchs had yet to amass their billions. But Mr. Kochman, then just 20 years old, had plenty of millionaires to court.

As some well-connected Russians joined the ranks of the world’s wealthiest people and began to buy up villas on the French and Italian Rivieras, Mr. Kochman moved to Monaco. Instead of selling mere yachts, often made on a production line, Mr. Kochman and his sister, Julia Stewart, now 46, entered into the world of superyachts, custom-made vessels of about 100 feet or longer. “We grow with our clients like parents with babies,” he said in 2016 in a rare interview .

Company records in Monaco show that Imperial Yachts was set up in 2008. The business also registered that year in the secrecy haven of Jersey in the English Channel.

But Mr. Kochman was still spending a lot of time in Moscow. That year he attended an exhibition for the ultrawealthy, with one of his British-built yachts on display. “We buy your yachts and you buy our gas,” Mr. Kochman told a Guardian reporter. Soon, his business took off.

Rich Russians and Persian Gulf royalty now dominate the ranks of owners of the world’s most extravagant superyachts, which can cost up to $75 million a year to operate . Since 2010, 17 superyachts 400 feet or longer have been delivered; all are owned by Russians or members of the Gulf monarchies.

In about 2014, Imperial Yachts landed its biggest project to date, a 349-foot superyacht to be constructed by Lürssen, a German shipbuilder: This would become the Amadea. Its Russian owner was sparing no expense, with hand-painted Michelangelo-style clouds above the dining table, a lobster tank, a fire pit and, at the bow, a five-ton stainless-steel Art Deco albatross figurehead . Nick Flashman, a former yacht captain who had joined Imperial, oversaw the project. Zuretti, a French firm, did the interior design.

Sébastien Gey, the director at Zuretti, said in an interview that the yacht’s owner — whom he declined to name because of nondisclosure agreements — was deeply involved in its design and construction, making frequent visits as the ship was built and outfitted. It was delivered in 2017.

But even before it was finished, the owner had Lürssen build another, larger superyacht, the Crescent, delivered in 2018, followed by the even bigger 459-foot Scheherazade, which went into service in 2020. Most of the planning and details for those two vessels were left to Mr. Kochman, recalled Mr. Gey.

That, Mr. Flashman said, was not unusual. “The client may be fully immersed in the project, he might not be,” he said in a phone interview. “I channel everything through Mr. Kochman.”

While Imperial Yachts oversees the projects, Lürssen, based in Bremen, receives payments directly from yacht owners, a company spokesman said. Lürssen is following “all sanctions and associated laws,” he added.

“We are not currently working with anyone on the sanctions list and we have shared all requested information with the authorities, with whom we continue to work,” the spokesman said in an email.

Mr. Gey, from the French design firm, said it does not work with people under sanctions.

The owner of all three vessels — at least on paper — was Eduard Khudainatov, a onetime pig breeder who is a protégé of Mr. Sechin, according to interviews with two people with direct knowledge of his role. Documents filed in a Fiji court show Mr. Khudainatov’s ownership of two of them. He was president of Rosneft when Mr. Sechin served as deputy prime minister. After stepping down from that post in 2013, he began buying up oil companies.

In 2020 Proekt, an independent Russian media outlet, citing an unnamed acquaintance, described him as a compliant and agreeable lieutenant: “Khudainatov knew how to give the impression of a simpleton, which is why he managed to please many bosses and make a career.”

Mr. Khudainatov, 61, had another appealing quality: Unlike Mr. Sechin or Mr. Timchenko, he was not under any sanctions.

But according to U.S. investigators, Imperial Yachts brokered the sale of the Amadea late last year to Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian government official and billionaire investor who has been on the U.S. sanctions list since 2018. He was among a group of seven oligarchs who the American officials said “benefit from the Putin regime and play a key role in advancing Russia’s malign activities.”

Showing that he was the new owner was key in what so far appears to be a successful effort by U.S. officials to persuade a Fijian court that the Amadea could be seized. The ship may leave this week. But in arguing its case, the U.S. investigators lacked official documents showing that Mr. Kerimov was the owner. Feizal Haniff, a lawyer in Fiji, disputed the U.S. claims, saying that Mr. Khudainatov remains the owner of the Amadea, controlling it through an offshore company.

In an affidavit, Timothy J. Bergen, special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said that Mr. Khudainatov, who doesn’t appear on lists of Russia’s richest people, was a “clean, unsanctioned straw owner” of the Amadea and the Scheherazade. Mr. Bergen said that Imperial Yachts, referred to as “Company A” in his affidavit, “has a practice of concealing yacht ownership behind nested shell companies” and using stand-ins like Mr. Khudainatov “in order to conceal the true beneficial owner.”

Mr. Clark, the lawyer for Imperial Yachts, said the company “would never knowingly create structures to hide or conceal ownership, nor would we knowingly broker deals to sanctioned individuals.”

Mr. Khudainatov, Mr. Timchenko and Mr. Kerimov didn’t return emails and phone calls seeking comment.

One thing is clear, according to the U.S. task force: Members of Mr. Kerimov’s family were on board the Amadea earlier this year, based on investigators’ interviews with crew members, reviews of emails between the ship and Imperial, and other documents from the superyacht including copies of passports.

On Jan. 21, Mr. Gey, the French designer, received an email from the captain of the Amadea. G2 — Imperial’s code name for Firuza Kerimova, Mr. Kerimov’s wife, according to the affidavit from the F.B.I. agent — was unhappy with the design of the electrical sockets in the guest bathrooms. They were in the cupboards, inconveniencing the family on their Caribbean tour.

The captain had been told of the request by Ms. Pastukhova, the Imperial client coordinator. Mr. Gey booked a flight and a hotel in St. Barts.

A few days later, Imperial Yachts signed off on another request. “Mr. Kochman has granted permission to sail to Antigua,” Ms. Pastukhova wrote to Ms. Kerimova. Mr. Kochman’s approval was also needed for a new onboard pizza oven.

“He wants to have an eye on everything, everything, everything,” Mr. Gey said.

An Italian Downton Abbey

With its colorful homes aging gracefully in the Mediterranean sun, and its harbor holding dinghies in neat rows, Portofino is the archetypal Italian seaside village. Strict conservation laws, in place since the rule of Benito Mussolini, are meant to ensure that it stays that way.

Portofino is a playground of the rich. Superyachts clutter the coast. Last month, Kourtney Kardashian was married there. And these days, a massive construction crane looms over the village, dominating the skyline.

Beneath the crane is Villa Altachiara, a 30-room mansion built in the late 19th century by a British earl. His son, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, sponsored the expedition that discovered the pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Some locals believe the villa is cursed. In 2001, its owner, an Italian countess, fell to her death from the steep hill leading to the sea, her body washing up in France.

The name Altachiara is an Italian translation of Highclere , the palatial Carnarvon estate in Hampshire where “Downton Abbey” was filmed.

When the villa, complete with a helipad, a pool and an eight-acre park, was sold in 2015, everyone in Portofino soon knew who the new proprietor was. “Villa Altachiara will speak Russian,” read a headline in the Genoa newspaper. The owner, the paper reported, was Eduard Khudainatov.

The cast of characters restoring Villa Altachiara to its former glory is familiar. Mr. Kochman’s BLD Management is supervising the project. Mr. Gey is helping to oversee the local and international artisans restoring the interior of the mansion. Yachtline 1618 , an Italian high-end carpentry company that has worked on Imperial Yachts projects, is also involved.

It has been seven years since the purchase, and construction was underway this winter, but the work stopped and the crews left at about the time of the Russian incursion into Ukraine, several local residents said. The towering crane remains, along with some green nets meant to help restore the erosion-preventing terracing.

Locals have never seen Mr. Khudainatov. Mariangela Canale, owner of the town’s 111-year-old bakery, said she was worried that Portofino would become a place where the homes were mere investments, owned by wealthy people who rarely visited, and the community would lose its soul. “Even the richest residents have always come for a chat or to buy my focaccia bread with their children, or have dinner in the piazza,” she said. “They live with us.”

Company records indicate that Mr. Kochman got into the villa business years after his yacht business was flourishing. BLD Management was set up in Jersey in 2016 through Fiduchi Group , the same offshore corporate services firm that registered Imperial Yachts. Mr. Kochman owns 5 percent of each company; the rest is hidden by a company called Fiduchi Trustees Limited. Both Mr. Kochman and Fiduchi declined to comment on the shareholding.

Much of BLD’s business is in Russia, especially around the Moscow area where it builds dachas for wealthy Russians, often with interior designs by Zuretti and carpentry by Yachtline 1618. BLD’s website lists a Moscow address and is in English and Russian.

But the idea is the same as with Imperial Yachts: work in total secrecy.

“Everything is under very strict nondisclosure agreements,” Mr. Gey said. “It’s a standard in the industry.”

He added, “It’s not like there is something to hide.”

Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting.

Michael Forsythe is a reporter on the investigations team. He was previously a correspondent in Hong Kong, covering the intersection of money and politics in China. He has also worked at Bloomberg News and is a United States Navy veteran. More about Michael Forsythe

Gaia Pianigiani is a reporter based in Italy for The New York Times.  More about Gaia Pianigiani

Julian E. Barnes is a national security reporter based in Washington, covering the intelligence agencies. Before joining The Times in 2018, he wrote about security matters for The Wall Street Journal. More about Julian E. Barnes

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US seizes yacht owned by oligarch with close ties to Putin

A Civil Guard stands by the yacht called Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Monday April 4, 2022. U.S. federal agents and Spain’s Civil Guard are searching the yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. All of Vekselberg’s assets in the U.S. are frozen and U.S. companies are forbidden from doing business with him and his entities. (AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla)

Civil Guards accompany U.S. FBI agents and a U.S.Homeland Security agent from the yacht called Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Monday April 4, 2022. U.S. federal agents and Spain’s Civil Guard are searching the yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. (AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla)

A U.S. federal agent leaves the yacht called Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Monday April 4, 2022. U.S. federal agents and Spain’s Civil Guard are searching the yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. (AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla)

A Civil Guard officer accompanies a U.S.Homeland Security agent and an FBI agent from the yacht called Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Monday April 4, 2022. U.S. federal agents and Spain’s Civil Guard are searching the yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. (AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla)

A U.S. federal agent and two Civil Guards board the yacht called Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Monday April 4, 2022. U.S. federal agents and Spain’s Civil Guard are searching the yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. All of Vekselberg’s assets in the U.S. are frozen and U.S. companies are forbidden from doing business with him and his entities. (AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla)

Civil Guards stand by the yacht called Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Monday April 4, 2022. U.S. federal agents and Spain’s Civil Guard are searching the yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. All of Vekselberg’s assets in the U.S. are frozen and U.S. companies are forbidden from doing business with him and his entities. (AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla)

A U.S. federal agent walks past two Civil Guards on the yacht called Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Monday April 4, 2022. U.S. federal agents and Spain’s Civil Guard are searching the yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. All of Vekselberg’s assets in the U.S. are frozen and U.S. companies are forbidden from doing business with him and his entities. (AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla)

Civil Guards officers accompany identified people from the yacht called Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Monday April 4, 2022. U.S. federal agents and Spain’s Civil Guard are searching the yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. (AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla)

A Civil Guard and a police dog walk off the yacht called Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Monday April 4, 2022. U.S. federal agents and Spain’s Civil Guard are searching the yacht owned by a Russian oligarch. The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. All of Vekselberg’s assets in the U.S. are frozen and U.S. companies are forbidden from doing business with him and his entities. (AP Photo/Francisco Ubilla)

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PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain (AP) — The U.S. government on Monday seized a 254-foot yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a first by the Biden administration under sanctions imposed after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and targeting pricey assets of Russian elites .

Spain’s Civil Guard and U.S. federal agents descended on the Tango at the Marina Real in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Associated Press reporters at the scene saw police going in and out of the boat.

The U.S. Justice Department, which obtained a warrant from a federal judge in Washington, alleges the yacht should be forfeited for violating U.S. bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions statutes.

Superyachtfan.com, a specialized website that tracks the world’s largest and most exclusive recreational boats, values the 78-meter vessel, which carries the Cook Islands flag, at $120 million.

The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg , a billionaire and close Putin ally who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents.

All of Vekselberg’s assets in the United States are frozen and American companies are barred from doing business with him and his entities. The Ukrainian-born businessman built his fortune by investing in the aluminum and oil industries in the post-Soviet era.

Prosecutors allege Vekselberg bought the Tango in 2011 and has owned it since then, though they believe he has used shell companies to try to obfuscate his ownership and to avoid financial oversight.

They contend Vekselberg and those working for him continued to make payments using U.S. banks to support and maintain the yacht, even after sanctions were imposed on him in 2018. Those payments included a stay in December 2020 at a luxury water villa resort in the Maldives and fees to moor the yacht.

It’s the first U.S. seizure of an oligarch’s yacht since U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen assembled a task force known as REPO — short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs — as an effort to enforce sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

“It will not be the last.” Garland said in a statement. “Together, with our international partners, we will do everything possible to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war.”

Vekselberg has long had ties to the U.S., including a green card he once held and homes in New York and Connecticut. He was also questioned in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and has worked closely with his American cousin, Andrew Intrater, who heads the New York investment management firm Columbus Nova.

Vekselberg and Intrater were thrust into the spotlight in that investigation after the lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels released a memo that claimed $500,000 in hush money was routed through Columbus Nova to a shell company set up by Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Columbus Nova denied that Vekselberg played any role in its payments to Cohen.

Vekselberg and Intrater met with Cohen at Trump Tower, one of several meetings between members of Trump’s inner circle and high-level Russians during Trump’s 2016 campaign and the transition before his presidency.

The 64-year-old Vekselberg founded Renova Group more than three decades ago. The group holds the largest stake in United Co. Rusal, Russia’s biggest aluminum producer, among other investments.

Vekselberg was first sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018, and again in March of this year, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began. Vekselberg has also been sanctioned by authorities in the United Kingdom.

The yacht sails under the Cook Islands flag and is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands administered by different societies in Panama, the Civil Guard said, “following a complicated financial and societal web to conceal its truthful ownership.”

Agents confiscated documents and computers inside the yacht that will be analyzed to confirm he real identity of the owner, it said.

The U.S. Justice Department has also launched a sanctions enforcement task force known as KleptoCapture, which also aims to enforce financial restrictions in the U.S. imposed on Russia and its billionaires, working with the FBI, the U.S. Treasury and other federal agencies. That task force will also target financial institutions and entities that have helped oligarchs move money to dodge sanctions.

The White House has said that many allied countries, including German, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and others are involved in trying to collect and share information against Russians targeted for sanctions. In his State of the Union address on March 1, President Joe Biden warned oligarchs that the U.S. and European allies would “find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets.”

“We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” he said.

Monday’s capture is not the first time Spanish authorities have been involved in the seizure of a Russian oligarch’s superyacht. Officials said they had seized a vessel valued at over $140 million owned by the CEO of a state-owned defense conglomerate and a close Putin ally.

French authorities have seized superyachts, including one believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the U.S. sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Italy has seized several yachts and other assets.

Italian financial police moved quickly seizing the superyacht Lena belonging to Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin, in the port of San Remo; the 65-meter (215-foot) Lady M owned by Alexei Mordashov in nearby Imperia, featuring six suites and estimated to be worth 65 million euros; as well as villas in Tuscany and Como, according to government officials.

Parra reported from Madrid and Balsamo reported from Washington.

The hunt for superyachts of sanctioned Russian oligarchs

• Published 6 April 2022

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WATCH: Protesters block superyacht linked to Abramovich at Bodrum

A superyacht linked to Roman Abramovich has had to leave a port in Turkey, as Western powers ramp up pressure on Russian oligarchs.

The MY Solaris sailed to Bodrum last month after the billionaire was included in both UK and EU sanctions. It was greeted by protests from a boatload of young Ukrainians, who tried to stop the yacht docking there.

But after two weeks in Bodrum, Global Port Holdings, which operates the cruise terminal, said it had decided not to accept payment for berthing the ship.

The company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, said it "has always strictly adhered to and will continue to adhere to... international sanctions rules and the requirements of the applicable laws, as well as to the legal conditions of its concession agreement in Bodrum."

In its statement, it said that it was not involved in deciding which ships could dock in the port, which is the responsibility of the Turkish authorities.

MY Solaris has since moved off from Bodrum to anchor in nearby Yalıkavak, while a second yacht linked to Mr Abramovich, the Eclipse, remains in Marmaris, a popular tourist destination along the Turkish Riviera.

Both vessels cost more than $500m and are among a number tracked by Lloyd's List Intelligence. The shipping data experts have been monitoring on-board tracking devices and have shared this information exclusively with the BBC, enabling the journeys of these and other vessels linked to sanctioned Russians to be plotted.

The UK, US and EU have said they will target superyachts, and some have already been seized in European ports. More remain at large - some are on the move, others are moored in places that are currently safe from sanctions, including the Maldives.

Many superyachts are linked to Russian billionaires but ownership is shrouded in secrecy - they are often registered through a series of offshore companies.

The team at Lloyd's List sifted through registration papers, credit reports and other records to determine who they believe is linked to each superyacht.

Roman Abramovich

MY Solaris , which is estimated to have cost $600m, boasts a pool and a helipad. It has a crew of up to 60 and can accommodate more than 30 guests.

It left Barcelona on 8 March where it was undergoing repairs, and docked off Tivat in Montenegro days after Mr Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK. Tivat is a hub for superyachts and boasts a large marina.

MY Solaris left Tivat and was sailing off the Greek west coast when the EU sanctioned Mr Abramovich on 15 March.

After this date, the yacht's tracking data shows it was steering clear of Greek territorial waters (Greece is in the EU) and sailing in international waters, where it cannot be seized.

On 21 March, it arrived in the Turkish resort of Bodrum, which has a modern marina and can accommodate superyachts up to 140m in length.

But its path was blocked by a small dinghy carrying eight children from a Ukrainian junior sailing team and their coach, waving Ukrainian flags.

Coach Paulo Donstov told the BBC they were there to compete in a sailing championship and were tipped off about the arrival of MY Solaris.

"We want the world to know that Ukraine wants freedom and peace," said Mr Donstov, whose family are still in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.

Turkey has said it has "no intention" of joining EU sanctions on Russians and, unlike most European countries, it is still allowing direct flights from Russia.

The captain of one vessel linked to a wealthy Russian, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC that Turkish officials had made it clear that Russian ships are "very welcome and will be treated as any other vessel".

The Eclipse is one of the world's largest superyachts. It has nine decks, three helipads and a three-person submarine. It is also rumoured to have a missile-defence system and a laser-directed light system to deter photographers from taking pictures of the vessel.

It was docked off the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten - a Dutch overseas territory linked to the EU - but left at the beginning of March. It then sailed east through the Mediterranean, north of Algeria.

On 22 March, the data showed it arriving at Marmaris in Turkey. The resort, a former fishing village, is another popular destination for superyachts. There is a marina, an Ottoman castle and more than 50 diving sites nearby.

Andrei Kostin

Sea Rhapsody has also been on the move. It has been linked to Andrei Kostin, president of the Russian state-owned VTB bank, who has been sanctioned by the US, EU and UK authorities.

The vessel, which boasts a cinema and a gym, left Fethiye in Turkey on 18 February, heading for Oman before arriving in the Seychelles on 3 March, where it has remained since.

Oleg Deripaska

The superyacht Clio is linked to Oleg Deripaska, an industrialist with close ties to President Putin, who has been sanctioned by the UK and the US.

It has its own support vessel called Sputnik - complete with its own helipad. Clio's on-board tracker located it near the Maldives in mid-March. It left these waters on 19 March, headed towards Oman and then the north-west coast of India, before turning back towards the Maldives.It has since headed north again, this time through the Gulf of Aden.

Several other vessels linked to sanctioned Russians were in or near the Maldives, including the Ocean Victory linked to Viktor Rashnikov and Nord linked to Alexei Mordashov.

The Madame Gu - linked to Andrey Skoch who has been sanctioned by the EU, UK and US - is in Dubai. And Le Grand Bleu , a yacht linked to Eugene Shvidler, who is under UK sanctions, was sailing in the Caribbean and is now in Puerto Rico (a US territory).

The Maldives, the Seychelles and Dubai don't have an agreement with the US, UK or EU that would allow the authorities to seize property, protecting yachts there from any sanctions.

But they may not be able to stay in safe waters indefinitely. "These things are living, guzzling animals on the water that need maintenance… so you need ports that can cater to that," says Capucine de Vallée, CEO of Boatbookings. "All the leading shipyards are in northern Europe."

She believes manufacturers may stop offering parts and maintenance due to sanctions.

• Vladimir Putin

A superyacht linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past sailed back to Russian waters before the invasion of Ukraine began.

Graceful moved from Germany to the coast of Kaliningrad, Russia, in mid-February.

But Lloyd's List says the movement data is limited as the vessel turned off its tracking device for several weeks.

Under the UN Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, ships must have their onboard-trackers switched on at all times unless there is a danger to the safety of the crew and vessel.

Several other yachts linked to Russians have also occasionally turned off their tracking data in the last month.

US officials are examining the ownership of a second yacht, the Scheherazade which is currently docked off the Italian town of Marina di Carrara.

Supporters of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have linked the 140m vessel, estimated to be worth $700m, to President Putin.

Which yachts have been seized?

At this time of year, many superyachts would usually start heading toward popular European destinations, such as Port Hercule in Monaco or Marina Grande on the Italian island of Capri.

But some countries in Europe have now seized yachts linked to sanctioned Russians.

The US and Spanish authorities recently conducted a joint operation in Mallorca to seize the yacht Tango. It's linked to Viktor Vekselberg, who was sanctioned by the US in 2018.

There have been other vessels seized as well:

• Sailing Yacht A seized in Trieste, Italy (linked to Andrei Melnichenko)
• Lena seized in San Remo, Italy (linked to Gennadiy Timchenko)
• Lady M seized in Imperia, Italy (linked to Alexei Mordashov)
• Amore Vero seized in La Ciotat, France (linked to Russian oligarch Igor Sechin)
• Valerie seized near Barcelona, Spain (linked to Sergei Chemenov)
• Crescent seized in Tarragona, Spain
• Lady Anastasia seized in Port Adriano, Spain (linked to Alexander Mikheev)
• Axioma seized in Gibraltar (linked to Dmitrievich Pumpyansky)

There is still confusion about the status of one of the world's biggest superyachts, the Dilbar - linked to sanctioned Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov.

It was reported that it had been seized in Hamburg, but the local authorities told us that this was not the case and that it was docked for ongoing repairs.

And a further two yachts are reported to have been seized in France, but the details have not yet been confirmed by the authorities.

What about unsanctioned yachts?

Lloyds List looked at more than 40 superyachts that they linked to wealthy Russians. Many of them haven't been sanctioned and there are clusters of them (highlighted in blue) still in the Mediterranean.

But they are already getting a frosty welcome in some ports. Crew members have been shunned in Monaco, according to Ms de Vallee, with some contractors refusing to carry out maintenance work because of fears they might have their payments confiscated by the EU.

The captain of one superyacht told us: "Our line of credit is completely cut, which makes operating very difficult."

Reporting by: Jake Horton, Joshua Cheetham, Kumar Malhotra, Erwan Rivault, Daniele Palumbo and Nicholas Barrett.

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Fleeing Sanctions, Oligarchs Seek Safe Ports for Superyachts

• By Associated Press

The superyacht Dilbar stretches nearly 140 meters in length. It has two helipads, berths for more than 130 people and a 25-meter swimming pool that itself can accommodate another superyacht.

Dilbar was launched in 2016 at a reported cost of more than $648 million. Five years later, its purported owner, the Kremlin-aligned Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, was already dissatisfied. He sent the vessel to a German shipyard last fall for a retrofit reportedly costing several hundred million dollars.

Dilbar was in drydock on Thursday when the United States and European Union announced economic sanctions against Usmanov -- a metals magnate and early investor in Facebook -- over his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and in retaliation for the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

“We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets,” President Joe Biden said during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, addressing Russian oligarchs. “We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.”

Seizing the behemoth boats could prove challenging. Russian billionaires have had decades to shield their money and assets in the West from governments that might try to tax or seize them.

Several media outlets reported last week that German authorities had impounded the Dilbar . But a spokesperson for Hamburg state's economy ministry told The Associated Press no such action had yet been taken because it had been unable to establish ownership of the yacht.

Dilbar is flagged in the Cayman Islands and registered to a holding company in Malta, banking havens where the global ultra-rich often park their wealth.

Working with the U.K.-based yacht valuation firm VesselsValue, the AP compiled a list of 56 superyachts -- generally defined as luxury vessels exceeding 24 meters in length -- believed to be owned by a few dozen Kremlin-aligned oligarchs. The yachts have a combined market value estimated at more than $5.4 billion.

The AP then used two online services -- VesselFinder and MarineTraffic -- to plot the last known locations of the yachts as relayed by their onboard tracking beacons.

Many are anchored in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. But more than a dozen were underway or had already arrived in remote ports in small nations such as the Maldives and Montenegro, potentially beyond the reach of Western sanctions. Three had gone dark, their transponders last pinging just outside the Bosporus in Turkey -- gateway to the Black Sea and the southern Russian ports of Sochi and Novorossiysk.

Graceful , a German-built Russian-flagged superyacht believed to belong to Putin, left a repair yard in Hamburg, Germany, on Feb. 7, two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. It is now moored in the Russian Baltic port of Kaliningrad, beyond the reach of Western sanctions imposed against him this past week.

French authorities seized the superyacht Amore Vero on Thursday in the Mediterranean resort town of La Ciotat. The boat is believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the U.S. sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

The French Finance Ministry said in a statement that customs authorities boarded the 88-meter Amore Vero and discovered its crew was preparing for an urgent departure, even though planned repair work wasn't finished.

The 65-meter Lady M was seized by Italian authorities Friday while moored in the Riveria port town of Imperia. In a tweet announcing the seizure, a spokesman for Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the yacht was the property of sanctioned steel baron Alexei Mordashov, listed as Russia's wealthiest man with a fortune of about $30 billion.

But Mordashov's larger superyacht, the 141-meter Nord , was safely at anchor on Friday in the Seychelles, a tropical island chain in the Indian Ocean not under the jurisdiction of U.S. or EU sanctions. Among the world's biggest superyachts, Nord has a market value of $500 million.

“No, no self-respecting Russian oligarch would be without a superyacht,” said William Browder, a U.S.-born and now London-based financier who worked in Moscow for years before becoming one of the Putin regime's most vocal foreign critics.

Russian metals and petroleum magnate Roman Abramovich is believed to have bought or built at least seven of the world's largest yachts, some of which he has since sold off to other oligarchs.

Dennis Cauiser, a superyacht analyst with VesselsFinder, said the escalating U.S. and EU sanctions on Putin-aligned oligarchs and Russian banks have sent a chill through the industry, with boatbuilders and staff worried they won't be paid. It can cost upwards of $50 million a year to crew, fuel and maintain a superyacht.

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 crushing the world's oceans. The 72-meter-long Stella Maris , which was seen by an AP journalist docked this past week in Nice, France, is believed to be owned by Rashid Sardarov, a Russian billionaire oil and gas magnate.

The crash of the ruble and the tanking of Moscow stock market have depleted the fortunes of Russia's elite. Cauiser said he expects some oligarch superyachts will soon quietly be listed by brokers at fire-sale prices.

On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a new round of sanctions that included news release citing Usmanov's close ties to Putin and photos of Dilbar and the oligarch's private jet, a custom-built 64-meter Airbus A340-300 passenger liner.

“I believe that such a decision is unfair and the reasons employed to justify the sanctions are a set of false and defamatory allegations damaging my honor, dignity and business reputation,” Usmanov said in a statement issued through the website of the International Fencing Federation, of which he has served as president since 2008.

Abramovich has not yet been sanctioned. Members of the British Parliament have criticized Prime Minister Boris Johnson for not going after Abramovich's U.K.-based assets, which include the professional soccer club Chelsea. Under mounting pressure, the oligarch announced this past week he would sell the $2.5 billion team and give the net proceeds “for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, location transponders showed the 162-meter Solaris -- launched by Abramovich in 2010 with an undersea bay that reportedly holds a mini-sub - was moored in Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday. Abramovich's $600 million Eclipse , eight stories tall and on the water since last year, set sail from St. Maarten late Thursday and is under way in the Caribbean Sea, destination undisclosed.

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The U.S. just seized a $120 million yacht owned by oligarch with close ties to Putin

The U.S. government on Monday seized a 254-foot yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a first by the Biden administration under sanctions imposed after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and targeting pricey assets of Russian elites.

Spain’s Civil Guard and U.S. federal agents descended on the Tango at the Marina Real in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea . Associated Press reporters at the scene saw police going in and out of the boat.

The U.S. Justice Department, which obtained a warrant from a federal judge in Washington,  alleges the yacht should be forfeited for violating U.S. bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions statutes.

Superyachtfan.com, a specialized website that tracks the world’s largest and most exclusive recreational boats,  values the 78-meter vessel, which carries the Cook Islands flag, at $120 million.

The yacht is among the assets linked to  Viktor Vekselberg , a billionaire and close Putin ally who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents.

All of Vekselberg’s assets in the United States are frozen and American companies are barred from doing business with him and his entities. The Ukrainian-born businessman built his fortune by investing in the aluminum and oil industries in the post-Soviet era.

Prosecutors allege Vekselberg bought the Tango in 2011 and has owned it since then, though they believe he has used shell companies to try to obfuscate his ownership and to avoid financial oversight.

They contend Vekselberg and those working for him continued to make payments using U.S. banks to support and maintain the yacht, even after  sanctions were imposed on him in 2018.  Those payments included a stay in December 2020 at a luxury water villa resort in the Maldives and fees to moor the yacht.

It’s the first U.S. seizure of an oligarch’s yacht since U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen assembled a task force known as REPO—short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs—as an effort to enforce sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

“It will not be the last.” Garland said in a statement. “Together, with our international partners, we will do everything possible to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war.”

Vekselberg has long had ties to the U.S., including a green card he once held and homes in New York and Connecticut. He was also questioned in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and has worked closely with his American cousin, Andrew Intrater, who heads the New York investment management firm Columbus Nova.

Vekselberg and Intrater were thrust into the spotlight in that investigation after the lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels released a memo that claimed $500,000 in hush money was routed through Columbus Nova to a shell company set up by Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Columbus Nova denied that Vekselberg played any role in its payments to Cohen.

Vekselberg and Intrater met with Cohen at Trump Tower, one of several meetings between members of Trump’s inner circle and high-level Russians during Trump’s 2016 campaign and the transition before his presidency.

The 64-year-old Vekselberg founded Renova Group more than three decades ago. The group holds the largest stake in United Co. Rusal, Russia’s biggest aluminum producer, among other investments.

Vekselberg was first sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018, and again in March of this year, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began. Vekselberg has also been sanctioned by authorities in the United Kingdom.

The yacht sails under the Cook Islands flag and is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands administered by different societies in Panama, the Civil Guard said, “following a complicated financial and societal web to conceal its truthful ownership.”

Agents confiscated documents and computers inside the yacht that will be analyzed to confirm he real identity of the owner, it said.

The U.S. Justice Department has also launched a sanctions enforcement task force known as KleptoCapture, which also aims to enforce financial restrictions in the U.S. imposed on Russia and its billionaires, working with the FBI, the U.S. Treasury and other federal agencies. That task force will also target financial institutions and entities that have helped oligarchs move money to dodge sanctions.

The White House has said that many allied countries, including German, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and others are involved in trying to collect and share information against Russians targeted for sanctions.  In his State of the Union address  on March 1, President Joe Biden warned oligarchs that the U.S. and European allies would “find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets.”

“We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” he said.

Monday’s capture is not the first time Spanish authorities have been involved in the seizure of a Russian oligarch’s superyacht. Officials said they had seized a vessel valued at over $140 million owned by the CEO of a state-owned defense conglomerate and a close Putin ally.

French authorities have seized superyachts, including one believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the U.S. sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Italy has seized several yachts and other assets.

Italian financial police moved quickly seizing the superyacht Lena  belonging to Gennady Timchenko , an oligarch close to Putin, in the port of San Remo; the 65-meter (215-foot) Lady M owned by Alexei Mordashov in nearby Imperia, featuring six suites and estimated to be worth 65 million euros; as well as villas in Tuscany and Como, according to government officials.

—Parra reported from Madrid and Balsamo reported from Washington.

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Who Are Russia's Oligarchs And What Power Do They Hold?

Pedestrians walk past the yacht "Lady M", owned by Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov, docked at Imperia's harbor. ANDREA BERNARDI/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Pedestrians walk past the yacht "Lady M", owned by Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov, docked at Imperia's harbor.

More than 1,000 Russians and their families have been hit with economic sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine. The list includes Roman Abramovich, the owner of the English Premier League team Chelsea, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Attorney General Merrick Garland and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced a multi-lateral task force called Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) with representatives from Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

It's part of the Justice Department's Kleptocature task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs.

"We will leave no stone unturned. Our efforts to arrest, investigate and prosecute those whose criminal acts have enabled the Russian government to continue this unjust war," said Garland in a press conference on March 2.

Authorities have already seized hundreds of million dollars in assets including private yachts, jets, and luxury villas.

New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski has introduced bipartisan legislation to repurpose assets seized by Russian oligarchs for humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

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Targeting super yachts owned by Russian oligarchs could hit a nerve in Moscow

Poor transparency around ownership of assets can cause challenges, experts say.

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With sanctions levied and financial assets seized, Russian oligarchs have been scrambling to get their super yachts out of Western ports in search of safer harbours. 

One yacht, said to belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, abruptly left port in Hamburg, Germany, just weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted wide-reaching sanctions. Others were not so quick to leave European ports. 

Authorities in La Ciotat, on France's Mediterranean coast, seized a yacht they say is linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Igor Sechin, the CEO of state oil company Rosneft. He was Russia's deputy prime minister from 2008 to 2012.

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Industry watchers say oligarchs everywhere are trying to keep their yachts from being taken.

​​"There's a few yachts that we are watching at the moment in the Atlantic," said Sam Tucker, head of super yachts at the firm VesselsValue, which tracks and estimates the value of these giant luxury yachts. 

"I'm expecting some of them to start doing U-turns in the middle of the ocean," he told CBC Radio's Day 6 .

Western countries have imposed a punishing package of sanctions and export control restrictions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Russia's biggest banks were hit, as was the country's central bank. Major state-owned companies and some of the country's wealthiest individuals have seen overseas assets frozen.

The investment bank JP Morgan Chase believes Russia's economy will shrink 35 per cent in the second quarter of 2022 and seven per cent for the entire year.

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki says the suite of sanctions is meant to make every aspect of life difficult on Putin and the oligarchs who protect him.

"What we're talking about here is seizing their assets, seizing their yachts and making it harder for them to send their children to go to colleges and universities in the West," Psaki said in a briefing this week. "These are significant steps that will impact the people who are closely around President Putin."

<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Putin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Putin</a>´s Yacht "The Gracefull" inbound Kaliningrad from Hamburg in anticipation of future sanctions due to the conflict in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ukraine</a>. <a href="https://t.co/qdhAUhCH1m">pic.twitter.com/qdhAUhCH1m</a> &mdash; @GDarkconrad

Symbolic target

The yachts themselves are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but experts in Russian sanctions say this isn't just about the dollar value.

"They don't have much value compared to the total net worth of an oligarch," said Bill Browder, a long-time advocate for stiff sanctions against Russian oligarchs, in an email to CBC Radio. 

But they are "a highly symbolic attack on something coveted by the oligarchs."

These ultra-luxurious ships became a status symbol for the oligarchs as they amassed fortunes in the 1990s and early 2000s.

"There is a bit of oneupmanship," Tucker told Day 6 . He says the biggest and most expensive ships are cloaked in secrecy. They have extreme privacy and security features, including bulletproof glass, and some require crew to sign non-disclosure agreements.

But Tucker says the biggest security and privacy feature of all is the opaque ownership structure of the yachts. He says precious little information about who actually owns these ships is available.

"[Only] basic information is disclosed — for example, the registered owner — which is often a shell company or a 'special interest vehicle' registered in Monaco, Malta, [or the] Cayman Islands," he said.

Untying those knots is a notorious problem, but one usually confined to taxation issues.

"One thing that I think may come out of this whole situation is the increased call for transparency and transparent ownership," said Tucker.

Yachts on the move

So far, only four super yachts have been seized, including a 213-foot yacht owned by Alexei Mordashov in Imperia, Italy.

While authorities sift through the byzantine paper trail of ownership, other oligarchs have scrambled their crews to get the yachts to somewhere safe.

"One of the things I've been trying to figure out is, where do they go [next]?" asked Alex Finley, a former CIA officer living in Barcelona, in an interview with  As It Happens host Gillian Findlay .

This week, Finley tweeted photos tracking a ship said to be owned by Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who owns the Chelsea Football Club.

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"A lot of these yachts that we've been looking at are heading towards the Maldives or the Seychelles. A few are in Montenegro, but they look like they're probably going to be on the move," Finley said in the interview .

Here you can see the sterns of both Aurora and Valerie, and in the other pic, the empty slip where Solaris used to be (which is the size of the empty hole in my heart). 7/ <a href="https://t.co/Luvj5vyWXp">pic.twitter.com/Luvj5vyWXp</a> &mdash; @alexzfinley

Neither the Maldives nor the Seychelles signed onto the sanctions, so the ships are probably safe from seizure there. Another major hub is Dubai.

"I think we're going to see Dubai as a big hotspot for these yachts," said Tucker. "It has hot weather all year round and … Russians can fly to Dubai without going through the EU airspace."

Tucker agrees that targeting the yachts is a symbolic move.

"It's really sending the message that they aren't untouchable. We've closed the skies on both sides of the Atlantic so their private jets can't operate, and now we're going after their super yachts," he said.

"I'd be feeling quite vulnerable if I was an oligarch right now."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Senior Business reporter for CBC News. A former host of On the Money and World Report on CBC Radio, Peter Armstrong has been a foreign correspondent and parliamentary reporter for CBC. Subscribe to Peter's newsletter here: cbc.ca/mindyourbusiness Twitter: @armstrongcbc

Interview with Sam Tucker produced by Rachel Levy-Mclaughlin

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France seizes Russian oligarch’s yacht amid EU sanctions

The move against Rosneft boss Igor Sechin came as Western states are implementing severe sanctions, including asset freezes, against Russia for invading Ukraine.

Custom officers in France have seized a yacht belonging to Rosneft boss Igor Sechin as it tried to leave the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat in a breach of European Union sanctions on Russian oligarchs, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.

The incident came as Western states are rapidly implementing severe sanctions , including asset freezes, against Russia for invading its neighbour Ukraine.

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The 88-metre (289-foot) “Amore Vero” arrived in La Ciotat on January 3 and was due to stay there until April 1 for repairs, the finance ministry said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the vessel was subject to the new sanctions.

But on Wednesday, customs officers noted the yacht was “taking steps to sail off urgently, without the repair works being over”, the statement said, adding that the officers therefore decided to seize it.

The finance ministry said the yacht belongs to a company whose main shareholder is Sechin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It did not name the company.

Monaco-based Imperial Yachts, which according to Refinitiv data is linked to Amore Vero, told Reuters news agency the yacht was owned by a firm called Kazimo, which appointed them as managers of the boat in 2018.

“The individual you name is not connected with either Kazimo nor the yacht,” a representative for Imperial Yachts told Reuters when asked about Sechin.

“Kazimo’s lawyers are in touch with French Douane in order to correct the record,” they said.

The finance ministry did not immediately return a request for comment.

The superyacht was built by Oceanco in the Netherlands and delivered to its owner in 2013, according to yachtcharterfleet.com, which says its on-board features include a beauty salon and gym. It sails under the flag of the Cayman Islands, according to Eikon data.

Sechin is seen as one of Russia’s most powerful men who has worked with Putin since the 1990s when they both worked in the Saint Petersburg mayor’s office.

French authorities on Thursday also seized a Russian-owned cargo vessel at the port of Lorient, Brittany.

Western sanctions

The EU, the United States and the United Kingdom have announced sanctions against Russian tycoons who are closely connected to Putin.

These included sanctions against Sechin, pipeline boss Nikolay Tokarev, bankers Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven and others.

Paris has said it is drawing up a list of assets in France owned by oligarchs, including yachts and luxury cars, with the southern Rivera coastline long being a magnet for the rich and famous.

“If I were an oligarch, in Russia or France, I’d be worried,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday.

US President Joe Biden has also tasked the Department of Justice with assembling a task force “to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments their private jets”.

The Maldives

Meanwhile, at least five superyachts owned by Russian billionaires were anchored or cruising in the Maldives, an Indian Ocean island nation that has no extradition treaty with the US, ship tracking data showed.

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

The Titan, owned by Alexander Abramov, a co-founder of Russian steel producer Evraz, arrived on February 28.

Three other yachts owned by Russian oligarchs were seen cruising in Maldives waters on Wednesday, the data showed. They included the 88-metre Nirvana, owned by Russia’s richest man, Vladimir Potanin. Most of the vessels were last seen anchored in Middle Eastern ports earlier in the year.

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

Luxury yachts and other myths: How Republican lawmakers echo Russian propaganda

Two senior Republican lawmakers, the chairs of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, say their colleagues are echoing Russian state propaganda against Ukraine.

Researchers who study disinformation say Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, are merely acknowledging what has been clear for some time: Russian propaganda aimed at undermining U.S. and European support for Ukraine has steadily seeped into America’s political conversation over the past decade, taking on a life of its own.

McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Puck News he thinks “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”

Turner, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNN that anti-Ukraine messages from Russia are “being uttered on the House floor.”

For the past decade, since Russia’s first military incursion into Ukraine in 2014, Moscow has spread propaganda and disinformation in a bid to undercut U.S. and European military support for Ukraine, according to U.S. and Western officials.

Some of the arguments, distortions and falsehoods spread by Russia have taken root, mostly among right-wing pro-Trump outlets and Republican politicians, researchers say, including that Ukraine’s government is too corrupt to benefit from Western aid and that the Biden family has alleged corrupt ties to Ukraine.

Russia, in keeping with traditional propaganda techniques, seeks to make its case and tarnish Ukraine through a mixture of outright falsehoods, half-truths, inferences or simply amplifying and promoting arguments already being made by American or European commentators and politicians, researchers say.

The propaganda is sometimes spread covertly, through fake online accounts, or openly by Russian officials and state media. As a result, the origin of some allegations or criticisms is often opaque, especially when a certain accusation or perception has gained wide acceptance, leaving no clear fingerprints.

Early in the war, a false story boosted by Russian propaganda — that the U.S. had helped Ukraine build biological weapons labs — gained traction on right-wing social media and was touted by then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Russia also is conducting a parallel propaganda campaign in Europe. Belgium’s prime minister said Thursday that his government is investigating alleged Russian bribes to members of the European Parliament as part of Moscow’s campaign to undermine support for Ukraine. Czech law enforcement officials last month alleged that a former pro-Russian member of Ukraine’s parliament, Viktor Medvedchuk, was behind a Prague-based Russian propaganda network designed to promote opposition to aiding Ukraine.

Here are some examples of Republican lawmakers using arguments often promoted by Russian propaganda:

Buying yachts

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with members of Congress behind closed doors in December to appeal for more U.S. help for his country’s troops, some lawmakers raised questions about Ukraine allegedly buying yachts with American aid money.

Zelenskyy made clear that was not the case, according to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a strong supporter of arming Ukraine. “I think the notion of corruption came up because some have said we can’t do it, because people will buy yachts with the money,” Tillis told CNN. “[Zelenskyy] disabused people of those notions.”

Where did the yacht rumor come from?

Pro-Russian actors and websites promoted a narrative alleging Zelenskyy bought two superyachts with U.S. aid dollars. One Russia-based propaganda site, DC Weekly , published a story last November that included photos of two luxury yachts, called Lucky Me and My Legacy , which it alleged were bought for $75 million.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a vocal opponent of military aid to Ukraine, in November retweeted a post about the alleged yacht purchase from the Strategic Culture Foundation, a Russian-based propaganda outlet directed by Russia’s intelligence services, according to the Treasury Department. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the organization, accusing it of spreading disinformation and interfering in U.S. elections.

Another outspoken critic of aid to Ukraine, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, also made a similar claim.

In a December interview with former President Donald Trump’s White House adviser Steve Bannon, Vance claimed that members of Congress wanted to cut Social Security benefits to provide more aid to Ukraine, and that money would allegedly be used for Zelenskyy’s ministers to “buy a bigger yacht.”

“There are people who would cut Social Security, throw our grandparents into poverty. Why? So that one of Zelenskyy’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht?” Vance said. “Kiss my ass, Steve. It’s not happening.”

The tale of Zelenskyy’s luxury yacht, however, turned out to be totally false . The yachts cited in the DC Weekly article remain up for sale , the owners told The Associated Press.

Two academics at Clemson University, disinformation researchers Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren, found that DC Weekly ran numerous stories copied from other sites that were rewritten by artificial intelligence engines. The articles had bylines with fake names along with headshots copied from other online sites. DC Weekly appeared to be a Russian effort to launder false information through a seemingly legitimate news site as part of an attempt to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine, according to the researchers .

Asked by reporters about Vance’s comments, Tillis said: “I think it’s bullshit. ...If you’re talking about giving money to Ukrainian ministers — total and unmitigated bullshit.”

Greene’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Vance’s spokesperson said the senator was making a rhetorical point about how he opposed sending U.S. assistance to what he sees as a corrupt country, but was not asserting the yacht stories online were accurate.

Vance’s office referred NBC News to an earlier response to the BBC on the same topic:

“For years, everyone in the West recognized that Ukraine was one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Somehow everyone forgot that just as we started sending them billions of dollars in foreign aid.”

Enabling ‘corruption’

Russian state media for years has painted Ukraine as deeply corrupt, and has argued that the U.S. and its allies are wasting money and military hardware by assisting such an allegedly corrupt government.

“This is absolutely a line that they have pushed, and then once it appears in the Western ecosystem, other [Russian] media picks it up and it gets recycled back,” said Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

This line of argument has gained traction partly because Ukraine does face a genuine corruption problem.

Russia’s effort to focus attention on corruption in Ukraine reflects a long-established propaganda method of using facts or partial truths to anchor a broader assertion or accusation, sometimes making a leap in logic, Schafer and other researchers said. Russia’s message amounts to: Ukraine is corrupt, therefore U.S. and Western aid will be stolen and wasted.

Schafer said it was ironic for Russia, a country mired in corruption and kleptocracy, to be leveling accusations about corruption.

Republican Rep. Mary Miller has said she strongly opposes more assistance for Ukraine because it amounts to sending cash to “corrupt oligarchs.”

“With Zelensky coming to DC this week to ask for more money, I will continue to vote AGAINST sending your tax $$ to corrupt oligarchs in Ukraine for a proxy war that could have ended in ‘22,” Miller wrote in a post on X in December.

The Illinois lawmaker also echoed another assertion that often appears in Russian media, that the Biden administration allegedly undermined efforts by Russia to avoid war with Ukraine.

 “A peace deal was on the table that [Ukraine] and [Russia] were both ready to sign, but Biden said NO,” she wrote.

There was in fact no proposed peace agreement that Russia and Ukraine were prepared to sign before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to U.S. and European officials. As Russian troops massed on the border of Ukraine, Western governments urged Russia not to invade and warned there would be economic and diplomatic consequences.

Reuters has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a possible deal to avert a war that had been discussed with Kyiv by Russia’s envoy to Ukraine. The Kremlin said the report was inaccurate and has said Russia tried for years to arrive at an understanding with Ukraine.

As for corruption in Ukraine, Zelenskyy has vowed to tackle the problem, sacking senior officials in some recent cases. But some civil society groups have criticized his approach and Ukrainians say corruption is the country’s second-most serious problem, after the Russian invasion, according to a poll conducted last year.

In an annual survey, Transparency International said Ukraine made progress toward addressing the issue and now ranks 104th out of 180 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index , climbing 12 places up from its previous ranking.

Ukraine is not alone among countries that receive U.S. and other foreign aid but struggle with corruption. Supporters of assisting Ukraine argue it would undermine America’s influence in the world and its humanitarian efforts if Washington withheld foreign aid from every country where there were reports of corruption.

Miller’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Biden family and Ukraine

Republicans have repeatedly alleged that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter have corrupt ties to Ukraine, and that they sought $5 million in bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to protect the firm from an investigation by Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

There is no credible evidence for the allegations. A key source for the accusations against the Bidens is a former FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who was arrested in February on federal charges of fabricating the bribery claims. Smirnov says he was fed information by Russian intelligence.

Republicans had heavily promoted Smirnov’s allegations against the Bidens, seeing them as crucial to a planned impeachment effort against the president that has since fizzled .

“In my estimation, that is probably the clearest example of Russian propaganda working its way into the American political system,” said Emerson Brooking, a resident senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council.

GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona cited the false bribery allegations in expressing his opposition to providing assistance to Ukraine.

“In exchange for … bribe money from Ukraine, Joe Biden has dished out over $100 billion in taxpayer money to fund the war in Ukraine. I will not assist this corruption by sending more money to the authoritarian Ukrainian regime,” Gosar said in a statement in October.

Gosar’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Dan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 

Syedah Asghar is a Capitol Hill researcher for NBC News and is based in Washington, D.C.