The U.S. government on Monday seized a 254-foot yacht in Spain belonging to an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the first time by the Biden government under sanctions imposed after the Kremlin invasion of Ukraine and targeting elements of the Russian elite. The Spanish Civil Guard and US federal agents landed in the Tango at Marina Real in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the Balearic Islands of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. Associated Press reporters at the scene saw police boarding the boat. The U.S. Department of Justice, which received a warrant from a federal judge in Washington, D.C., says the yacht should be dropped for violating U.S. law on bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions. Superyachtfan.com, a specialized website that monitors the largest and most exclusive yachts in the world, values the 78-meter boat, which bears the flag of the Cook Islands, at $ 120 million. The yacht is among the assets associated with Victor Wexelberg, a billionaire and close ally of Putin, who leads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a heterogeneous business group that includes metals, mines, technology and other assets. with US Treasury Department documents. All of Vekselberg’s assets in the United States have been frozen and US 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 that Vekselberg bought the Tango in 2011 and has owned it ever since, although they believe he has used shell companies to try to blackmail his property and evade financial oversight. They claim that Wexelberg and those who worked for him continued to make payments using US banks to support and maintain the yacht, even after the sanctions against him were imposed in 2018. These payments included a stay in December 2020 at a resort luxury marine villa in the Maldives and charges to anchor the yacht. It is the first U.S. yacht seizure since U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened a working group known as REPO – short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs – as an attempt to impose sanctions after the invasion. of Russia in Ukraine 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 allow the Russian government to continue its unjust war.” Wexelberg has long had ties to the United States, including a green card that once had homes in New York and Connecticut. He was also questioned in the context of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and has worked closely with his American cousin Andrew Intrater, who heads New York-based investment management company Columbus Nova. Vekselberg and Intrater came to the forefront of the investigation after adult film star Stormy Daniels’s lawyer published a note claiming that $ 500,000 in silent money was channeled through Columbus Nova to a shell company founded by his personal lawyer. Donald Trump, Michael Cohen. Columbus Nova has denied that Vekselberg played a role in its payments to Cohen. Wexelberg and Intrater met with Cohen at the Trump Tower, one of many meetings between members of Trump’s inner circle and high-ranking Russians during Trump’s 2016 campaign and transition before his presidency. Vekselberg, 64, founded the Renova Group more than three decades ago. The group holds the largest share in United Co. Rusal, Russia’s largest aluminum producer, among other investments. Vekselberg was first imposed by the US in 2018 and again in March this year, shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Vekselberg has also been punished by the authorities in the United Kingdom. The yacht is sailing under the flag of the Cook Islands and belongs to a company registered in the British Virgin Islands that manages different societies in Panama, the Political Guard said, “following a complex economic and social web to hide its true ownership”. Agents seized documents and computers inside the yacht that will be analyzed to confirm the owner’s true identity, he said. The US Department of Justice has also launched a special sanctions team known as KleptoCapture, which also aims to impose US financial restrictions on Russia and its billionaires, in collaboration with the FBI, the US Treasury Department and other federal agencies. services. This task force will also target financial institutions and entities that have helped oligarchs move money to avoid sanctions. The White House has said that many allied countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and others, are involved in gathering and exchanging information against Russians seeking sanctions. Speaking on the state of the Union on March 1, President Joe Biden warned oligarchs that US and European allies “will find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets.” “We are coming for your illegal profits,” he said. Monday’s arrest is not the first time Spanish authorities have been involved in the seizure of a Russian oligarch’s superyacht. Officials say they have seized a ship worth more than $ 140 million belonging to the chief executive of a state-owned heterogeneous defense group and a close ally of Putin. French authorities have seized superyachts, including one believed to belong to Igor Sechin, Putin’s ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the US sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Italy has seized many yachts and other assets. Italian financial police moved quickly, seizing the Lena superyacht owned by Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin, in the port of San Remo. the 65-meter Lady M owned by Alexei Mordashov in nearby Imperia, with six suites and an estimated value of 65 million euros. as well as villas in Tuscany and Como, according to government officials. —- Para reported from Madrid and Balsamo from Washington
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