A company from the British Virgin Islands which requested in summary proceedings the lifting of the seizure of a megayacht, the Amore Vero, immobilized in a French port as part of the sanctions against Russian oligarchs, has been dismissed, according to an order issued on Wednesday in Marseilles.
86 meters long, with a swimming pool that can be transformed into a helipad and with an estimated value exceeding 100 million euros, the white yacht Amore Vero had been blocked by French customs in the La Ciotat shipyard, near east of Marseille, March 3, 2022, a week after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The French Ministry of Economy and Finance then assured that this ship was owned by a company linked to Igor Setchin, boss of the Russian oil giant Rosneft and close to President Vladimir Putin, and that it “entered into the scope of the measures of freezing decided against its owner” by the European Union.
As the boat “was making arrangements to sail urgently”, it had been seized and not simply blocked (freezed) by the French authorities. More than six months later, it is still moored in the port of La Ciotat, under surveillance. And following a complaint from customs, a judicial inquiry is also underway.
Igor Sechin, economic beneficiary
This immobilization was one of the first tangible signs of the hunting down of luxury goods by Vladimir Putin’s relatives in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The company Kazimo Trade & Invest Limited, whose head office is in the British Virgin Islands and which presents itself as the owner of the Amore Vero, had asked in July the judge for interim measures (emergency proceedings) of the Marseilles judicial court to order “the release of the seizure of the vessel”. The judge declared himself “incompetent” to decide on the lifting of this seizure, considering that the company should apply to the administrative court.
It notes however that “the information gathered by the customs officers made it possible to establish that if the company Kazimo Trade & Invest Limited was registered as the owner and commercial operator of the vessel in question (…), Mr. Igor Setchin was for his part registered as an economic beneficiary thereof.
The judge in chambers also ordered the company from the Virgin Islands to “pay the Mediterranean customs coastguard service” the sum of 5,000 euros to cover the legal costs incurred.
The tracking of assets is complicated by the fact that the owners often hide behind front companies domiciled in the Bahamas, Guernsey, the Virgin Islands…