Swiss-Russian man charged for helping oligarch hide yacht

The Tango superyacht was finally seized in April by Spain, at the request of the US. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

The United States has charged two men, including a Russian-Swiss, with helping sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg avoid the seizure of his superyacht, the Justice Department said on Friday.

It said the 51-year-old man with dual Russian and Swiss nationality is still on the run, while the other man charged, a 52-year-old Briton, has been arrested in Spain,

The two men are accused of helping Vekselberg, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to conceal the fact that he was the owner of the yacht “Tango”, whose value is estimated at $90 million. Billionaire Vekselberg, who is resident in Switzerland, was put on the list of oligarchs sanctioned by the US in 2018, following the Russian annexation of Crimea.  He is director of the Renova Group, a conglomerate based in Moscow, and a key shareholder in the Zurich industrial group Sulzer.

The US justice system blames the Briton, who runs a shipping company in Palma de Mallorca, for renaming Vekselberg’s yacht Tango the “Fanta” in order to continue working with American suppliers. US sanctions prevent US companies and their subsidiaries from doing business with targeted entities.

The two men “advised and enabled employees of the Tango to continue doing business with US companies, using several schemes to circumvent the sanctions, including paying in currencies other than dollars and through intermediaries,” the statement said.

The Tango, a 78-metre-long ship, was finally seized in April by Spain at the request of the United States.