Russian oligarchs do not flee – another super yacht has been seized

05 April 2022

With the help of the United States and the leadership of the Spanish police, another giant yacht has come into the possession of the authorities. Now Victor Vekselberg has sucked it up, writes Our American Mother Forbes.

Yacht booking

• Victor Vekselberg’s $90 million yacht in Palma de Mallorca has been confiscated. The Spanish Civil Guard, in cooperation with the FBI, captured a ship called Tango.
• Vekselberg’s yacht has been in Mallorca since January 30th. It has a spa, pool, and beauty parlour, and can sleep 14 guests in seven cabins (not too demanding).
• The ninth victim of the yacht occupier is Tango: One and a half billion dollars worth of superyachts have been blocked or confiscated by the authorities since the Russian invasion in late February.
• At first, many oligarchs were still trying to escape from the trinkets, but the Russian oil baron Igor Sechin and an unnamed businessman active in Britain were already in trouble. Roman Abramovich fled from his humble little boats to Turkey.

Vekselberg, sucker

The 255-foot-tall Tango has previously been banned from its US ports. Born in Ukraine anyway, Vekselberg has been on the US blacklist since 2018, where he is considered one of the most important people in the Russian energy sector.

The Russian oligarchy was also hit with sanctions from the UK on March 15, but the EU is not out yet. The current reservation of the yacht was taken over by the Spanish Guardian Civil at the request of the United States, at the direction of a District Court in Mallorca. Vekselberg did not comment on the case.

Tango is owned by the entrepreneur through several offshore companies. The Vekselberg name is also associated with two more expensive toys: the Airbus A319 private jet and the Bombardier BD700 private jet. The first was sanctioned by the United States with Tango one day, and the second fled to Kazakhstan. Airbus could be worth nearly $90 million, according to US authorities, while Bombardier could be worth $15 million, according to Forbes estimates.

Tango book cover. Photo: Guardia Civil