US seizes first oligarch yacht in Spain as Russia's elite continue to face sanctions

The US has seized a 254-foot yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It is the first Russian super yacht to be seized by Joe Biden's administration as the West continues to target the pricey assets of the country's elites in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Spain's Civil Guard and US FBI agents descended on the yacht, named Tango and owned by billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, docked at the Marina Real in the port of Palma de Mallorca on Monday.

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

It came just days after the UK seized its first super yacht, owned by a Russian businessman, in east London as further sanctions on oligarchs take hold.

Superyachtfan.com, a specialised website that tracks the world’s largest and most exclusive recreational boats, values the 78-meter Tango vessel at $120 million (around £91.5 million).

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 analysed to confirm the real identity of the owner, it said.

The yacht is among the assets linked to 64-year-old Vekselberg, a close Putin ally who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to US Treasury Department documents.

The Ukrainian-born businessman built his fortune by investing in the aluminium and oil industries in the post-Soviet era and the Renova group holds the largest stake in United Co. Rusal, Russia’s biggest aluminium producer.

All of Vekselberg’s assets in the United States are frozen and American companies are barred from doing business with him and his entities.

Vekselberg was first sanctioned by the US 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.

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 US 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 US seizure of an oligarch’s yacht since Attorney General Merrick Garland and 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 US, 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 US 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.

The pair 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.