The Diplomat
Spanish authorities seized yesterday in Palma de Mallorca, at the request of the United States, the luxury yacht of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who is close to Vladimir Putin and had been sanctioned by Washington.
This is the fourth yacht seized in Spain since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The other three reportedly belonged to billionaires close to power and sanctioned by the European Union.
According to notes from the U.S. Embassy in Madrid and the Guardia Civil, the State Security Forces executed a court order freezing the Motor Yatch Tango, a 77-meter yacht valued at some $90 million, in response to a request for assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Viktor Vekselberg is not sanctioned by the European Union, but by the Department of the Treasury (OFAC) of the United States”, where, according to the note of the Benemérita, “he is being investigated for tax fraud, money laundering and false documentation in relation precisely to the concealment of the real ownership of this luxury yacht to try to avoid sanctions”.
Vekselberg integrates a list of seven Russian oligarchs close to the Kremlin, sanctioned in April 2018 by Washington, which accuses them of having participated in Russian attacks on Western democracies.
Upon receipt of the U.S. request, under the bilateral treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, the Spanish central authority for mutual legal assistance referred the request to a Spanish prosecutor, who obtained a seizure order from a Spanish court and the Civil Guard was tasked with executing it yesterday.
Washington made the demand, following the issuance of a seizure order, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which alleged that the Tango was subject to forfeiture for the crimes of fraud, money laundering and sanctioning statutes.
According to the documents filed, the U.S. investigation alleges that Vekselberg purchased the Tango in 2011 and has owned it continuously since then. It further indicated that Vekselberg used shell companies to conceal ownership of Tango in order to avoid bank oversight of U.S. dollar transactions related to it.
Further, after Vekselberg was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on April 6, 2018, the order alleges that Vekselberg and those working on his behalf continued to make U.S. dollar payments through U.S. banks for the support and maintenance of the Tango and its owners, including a payment for a stay at a luxury water villa resort in the Maldives in December 2020 and mooring fees for the yacht. Vekselberg had an interest in these payments and therefore a license was required from the Treasury Department, which was not obtained.
The seizure was coordinated through the Department of Justice’s KleptoCapture Task Force, an interagency law enforcement working group dedicated to enforcing the broad sanctions, export restrictions and economic countermeasures that the U.S. has imposed, along with its allies and partners, in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.
The vessel is Cook Islands flagged and registered in the name of a company based in the British Virgin Islands, which in turn is managed by companies in Panama.
