This is the second seizure made by French customs since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. They have just got their hands on the “Amore Vero”, the yacht of the Russian billionaire Igor Sechin , director of Rosneft, in La Ciotat. The operation took place overnight from Wednesday to Thursday after a check of several hours in the shipyard, said a press release from Bercy.
According to the ministry, the ship was in the process of making arrangements to sail urgently, as a number of boats have done in recent days. It is this attempt to escape which qualifies the offense and allows the customs seizure, specifies Bercy. An investigation has now been launched which will or will not lead to the confiscation of the property, depending on what the court decides.
“Task force” in Bercy
“A yacht belonging to a Russian oligarch has been seized. Thank you to the French customs officers who enforce the sanctions of the European Union against those close to the Russian authorities”, welcomed the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, Thursday morning. He announced earlier this week the creation of a “task force”, made up of tax officials, customs officers and officials from the financial intelligence services (Tracfin) to track down assets, villas, jets, yachts , etc., personalities close to the Kremlin in France.
If it is common knowledge that Russian billionaires have homes on the Côte d’Azur or in the posh resorts of the Alps, such as Courchevel, the hunt extends to other parts of the territory. Customs have identified three commercial vessels, in Fos-sur-Mer, Saint-Malo and Lorient. In addition, the gendarmes of the Dordogne would be interested in the owner of the castle of Thénac, according to France Bleue. Eugene Shvidler, who also owns a London mansion, a 113-meter yacht and flies a private jet valued at $45 million, bought the castle and its 35 hectares in 2001.
Last Saturday, thanks to the cooperation of the American authorities, a first customs seizure was made: customs officers intercepted a cargo ship flying the Russian flag, the “Baltic Leader”. Property of the bank Promsvyazbank (PSB), targeted by European and American sanctions, the ship is detained at the quay in Boulogne-sur-Mer, at least during the time of the investigation.
“Back to the Stone Age”
Bercy is content for the moment to immobilize the boats but is considering a legal way to make real seizures. The idea would be that the blacklisting of the EU – in which appear twenty-five close to Vladimir Putin – could lead, not to a freeze, but to a confiscation, a “loss of property”, as put it Bruno Le Maire.
” Confiscation is a criminal concept: in a state of law you can’t do it without a trial, otherwise it’s a return to the stone age, ” warns a lawyer specializing in these cases. If a law were passed, it would be subject to the protection of the right to property as provided for in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
The United Kingdom faces the same problem. While Boris Johnson is criticized for his lack of severity towards the oligarchs on British soil the government is studying legal means to seize the British assets of nine oligarchs placed on the list of personalities under sanction, according to the “Financial Times”.
Gigantic yacht in Hamburg
Germany, for its part, has just got its hands on billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s gigantic yacht in Hamburg, reports “Forbes”. His name appears in the European list, where it says that he “has been named as one of Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs” and is “considered one of Russia’s official businessmen in charge of to manage the financial flows but whose position depends on the will of the president”. The file also specifies that Dmitri Medvedev, the former Russian president, benefited from the personal use of luxurious residences controlled by Alisher Usmanov.