Germany seizes the largest yacht belonging to a Russian.
Germany has seized the world’s largest yacht after “extensive investigations” that it’s owned by the sister of sanctioned Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.
German federal police said on Thursday they had seized Dilbar worth about 555 million euros after several arduous weeks of investigations into the yacht’s real ownership, despite a complex concealment network.
The ship was flagged by the Cayman Islands and registered with a company in Malta – both tax havens favored by the ultra-rich global to hide their wealth.
German authorities said they had determined the yacht was owned by Usmanov’s sister, Gulbakhor Ismailova.
Usmanov, a telecommunications tycoon who owns the 44m-euro Beechwood House residence in Highgate, London and the 16th-century Sutton Place property in Surrey, was sanctioned last month. The billionaire, who owns large stakes in English football clubs Arsenal and Everton, had already been sanctioned by the European Union and the US.
Ismailova and another of Usmanov’s sisters, Saodat Narzieva, have also been subject to UK and EU sanctions.
The UK government said Usmanov “indirectly transferred assets to Ismailova, including leaving his sister as the sole beneficiary owner of the yacht Dilbar”