U.S. federal prosecutors said they believe the 255-foot superyacht, called Tango, is owned by Viktor Vekselberg, whom they identified as a member of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
"Today marks our task force's first seizure of an asset belonging to a sanctioned individual with close ties to the Russian regime. It will not be the last," said Attorney General Merrick Garland. "Together, with our international partners, we will do everything possible to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war."
The founder of the Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate with interests in aluminum, oil and energy, Vekselberg was first blacklisted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in April 2018 as part of the United States' economic response to Russia's occupation of Crimea.
The U.S., alongside the European Union and the United Kingdom, sanctioned Vekselberg again in March, saying his financial interests spanned multiple sectors of the Russian economy and were intertwined with the Rusnano Group, one of Russia's largest technological investors and a revenue source for the Kremlin.
A Washington, D.C., federal court later issued the Justice Department a seizure warrant for Vekselberg's Tango based on allegations that the billionaire had covered up his stake in the vessel and routed cash through U.S. banks to pay its upkeep. In 2020, after the 2018 sanctions order was issued, Vekselberg and his affiliates paid to moor the vessel in the Maldives, prosecutors said.
Monday's seizure was coordinated through the Justice Department's KleptoCapture Task Force, the department's interagency task force charged with enforcing the unprecedented economic restrictions the U.S. has placed on Russia.
The task force's director, Andrew Adams, credited the seizure to an "unprecedented, multinational effort" in the West to ensure the financial restrictions can't be evaded.
"For those who have tied their fortunes to a brutal and lawless regime, today's action is a message that those nations dedicated to the rule of law are equally dedicated to separating the oligarchs from their tainted luxuries. This seizure is only the beginning of the task force's work in this global effort to punish those who have and continue to support tyranny for financial gain," Adams said.
--Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.
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