US finally seizes Russian assets and snags meager $90m yacht
Spanish officials this week seized a Russian yacht in the port city of Mallorca at the request of the US Department of Justice, marking the first major grab for Task Force KleptoCapture.
Yeah. that’s what they call it. The G-Men really need to work on this stuff a bit. NPR to the truth about this caper:
The $90million 255ft yacht, named Tango, is owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who heads Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate with interests in metallurgy, machinery, energy, telecommunications as well that others.
“Today marks the first seizure by our task force of property belonging to a sanctioned individual with close ties to the Russian regime. It won’t be the last,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Together with our international partners, we will do everything we can to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts allow the Russian government to continue its unjust war.”
The seizure was carried out by agents of the Spanish Guardia Civil with the help of the FBI.
$90 million huh? Yeah, I guess that’s cool and all, but other countries have been going hard on seizing the yacht for weeks now. They’ve picked up some pretty awesome pleasure craft, like this $700 million yacht that, almost certainly, belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. Italian and Spanish officials collected Russian yachts as if they were going for the set, and Finland managed to catch 21 possible Russian yachts In one time.
The United States has been seriously behind in recovering sophisticated Russian ships and other assets. It is actually difficult for US authorities to seize assets due to the obfuscation of who actually owns those assets as well as strict privacy laws. The House Foreign Affairs Committee recently presented the Law on Seizure of Assets for Reconstruction of Ukraine to facilitate the transformation of Russian assets into Ukrainian support. The bill already enjoys broad bipartisan support with senators on both sides of the aisle set to vote for the legislation once it reaches their chambers. The law also provides a significant bounty for US citizens who turn over information leading to the seizure of such assets.
