Ukraine war
USA get serious: FBI confiscates oligarch yacht “Tango” in Mallorca
Wiktor Felixowitsch Wekselberg’s “Tango” is 78 meters long and is estimated to have cost between 90 and 120 million US dollars.
© Levent Kisi / Picture Alliance
Together with the Spanish police, the FBI has confiscated Wiktor Wekselberg’s yacht “Tango”. This makes it the first yacht to be detained by the USA in Europe.
The US is chasing the assets of Russian oligarchs who are under sanctions for attacking Ukraine – and apparently not only at home. Together with the Spanish police, agents from the FBI and Homeland Security seized the super yacht “Tango” (IMO 1010703) on Mallorca. The ship has been in the port of Palma de Mallorca for repairs since the end of January.
The “Tango” is said to belong to oligarch Viktor Felixowitsch Wekselberg, who has not only been sanctioned for the war in Ukraine, but has also been prosecuted in the United States since 2018 for money laundering and bank fraud. He is said to be particularly close to Russia’s President Putin.
Since the Russian annexation of Crimea, Wekselberg has been banned from doing business in US dollars and working with American companies. According to the US Department of Justice, he violated this rule several times.
First US confiscation in EU
Authorities had already temporarily blocked the “Tango” in Mallorca in mid-March, and its owner is not yet on the list of sanctioned persons in the EU. The 65-year-old is the founder of the Renova investment group, holds shares in the world’s second-largest aluminum producer Rusal and is said to have had total assets of 17.2 billion US dollars at the best of times. According to Forbes, after all the sanctions and confiscations, it’s currently around $5.8 billion.
“Today is the first time our task force has seized an asset belonging to a sanctioned individual with close ties to the Russian regime. It will not be the last,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Together with our international partners, we will do everything we can to hold accountable all those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war.”
The confiscation goes back to the work of the US task force “Kleptocapture”. This task force of the US Department of Justice was only created in March 2022 and is said to focus on tracing and seizing property attributed to sanctioned Russian individuals.
“Just the Beginning”
Andrew Adams, director of the unit, found clear words after the confiscation of the “Tango”: “To those who have their assets tied up in a brutal and lawless regime, today’s action is a message that the nations committed to the rule of law have also worked to strip the oligarchs of their depraved luxuries. This confiscation is just the beginning of the taskforce’s work in this global effort to punish those who have supported and continue to support tyranny for financial gain.”
According to reports, the “Tango” has a swimming pool and an outdoor cinema. With seven luxurious cabins, she is large enough to accommodate 14 guests and 22 crew members. “Tango” is the ninth yacht seized by government agencies in the wake of sanctions against oligarchs. Most recently, the British government took control of the ‘Phi’ in the Thames, which had come to the city for an awards ceremony (read more here).
Like other people affected, Wiktor Felixowitsch Wekselberg described the sanctions imposed on him several years ago as “illegal and unfair”. The oligarch has not yet commented on the fixing of his yacht.
Swell: DOJ, forbes, charterworld, forbes [2], daily indicator