Nothing says Russian billionaire like a Cayman-flagged superyacht. Some of these Russian-owned luxury ships will soon be permanently anchored or find themselves on the run from authorities in some Pacific archipelago.
On Wednesday, France seized the Cayman-registered 88-metre Amore Vero, a yacht allegedly linked to Igor Sechin, the head of Russian oil-giant Rosneft, in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat.
The French finance ministry said the yacht was owned by an entity of which Sechin was the main shareholder. According to website vesselfinder.com the Amore Vero is owned by Monaco-based Kazimo Trade & Invest Ltd.
Also on Wednesday, German authorities confiscated the Cayman-registered, 156-meter, $600 million Dilbar belonging to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov in a Hamburg shipyard, according to a report by Forbes.
German authorities so far deny the ship has been impounded. Hamburg’s port authority said no yacht had been seized but added that no yachts were leaving port that were not allowed to do so. German customs declined to comment, according to media reports.
Usmanov, the owner of industrial holding company USM, is like Sechin on the European Union Russia sanctions list. The list is targeting wealthy Russians with ties to the regime of President Vladimir Putin in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
The EU added Usmanov to the sanctions list on Monday together with 25 other wealthy Russian individuals, who are now subject to a travel ban and will see their European assets frozen.
Usmanov also has various properties dotted around Europe, including a historic mansion in London, three villas at Lake Tegern in Southern Germany, and other luxury homes in Switzerland, Monaco and Sardinia.
His yacht Dilbar has been in the Hamburg shipyard of Blohm+Voss for a refit since October.
Vesselfinder.com identifies the owner of the Cayman-registered Dilbar as Klaret Continental Leasing Ltd., a subsidiary of the Klaret Group, which Usmanov reportedly controls
Cayman is the world’s preferred flag state for ultra-large yachts. More than 80% of yachts that are longer than 80 metres are registered in the islands. In the superyacht segment of vessels that are longer than 30 metres, Cayman ranks second in the world.
These superyachts almost never visit the Cayman Islands and are generally indirectly owned. They are typically held by a special purpose vehicle or leasing company.
One advantage of registering a yacht in Cayman is that there is no value added tax or duty due on the sale of a vessel. In other flag states, VAT alone can be as high as 15% to 25% of the purchase price.
German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported that shipbuilders Blohm+Voss had stopped work on two other yachts, the Marhsall Islands-flagged Luna and the Maltese-flagged Solandge, in addition to the Dilbar.
But a yacht allegedly tied to the Russian president Putin, the 80-metre Russia-flagged Graceful, left the German dockyard on 7 Feb and is now docked in Kaliningrad.
The search for yachts tied to Russian billionaires started as soon as sanctions lists were issued last week.
The White House said in a tweet in 26 Feb, “This coming week, we will launch a multilateral Transatlantic task force to identify, hunt down, and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs — their yachts, their mansions, and any other ill-gotten gains that we can find and freeze under the law.”
Spanish Maritime Authorities requested information from ports and marinas in the country on all Russian-owned yachts anchored there.
It found that the 78-meter mega yacht Tango, which flies the flag of the Cook Islands and is owned by billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, is docked for repairs at a shipyard in Mallorca.
The UK, on the other hand, has banned all Russian shipping from UK ports. This might be because the UK government is struggling to enforce sanctions against Russian oligarchs.
The Times newspaper reported on Thursday that the UK government is finding it difficult to prove reasonable grounds for asset freezes and seizures under current legislation and is now seeking to change the law.
Many Russian owners saw the writing on the wall and ordered their ships to set sail out of European marinas to move them out of reach of European and US authorities.
Five Russian oligarch-owned superyachts are currently moored off Male, the capital of the Maldives, data from ship tracking websites confirms.
At least three of them are Cayman-flagged: Oleg Deripraska’s Clio, Alexey Mordashov’s Nord and Vladimir Potanin’s Nirvana.
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