Russian yacht in Mallorca costing the US a fortune

Palma.—It is now just over two years since Spanish officials, with the assistance from the FBI and Homeland Security, seized a Russian-owned luxury yacht in Mallorca at the request of the US Department of Justice.

It was the first coordinated seizure under the department's Task Force KleptoCapture, which was tasked with enforcing the sweeping sanctions placed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. The $90 million 255-foot yacht, named Tango, is owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who heads the Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate with interests in metallurgy, machinery, energy, telecommunications among others. The yacht, seized on April 4 2022, remains at Club de Mar in Palma. It has not been sold and is costing the US government a small fortune in maintenance.

When the yacht was traced to Palma, the FBI and the Guardia Civil gained access and it was seized by order of a court in Palma on the basis of a request from a court in the District of Columbia.

Since then, the United States has been responsible for the costs of keeping the yacht in port. But given the high cost, the US government wants to sell it in order to use the funds to finance the Ukrainian army. The proposal, for the moment, has been rejected by the company that owns the Tango.

Vekselberg is one of many Russian oligarchs named in the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) signed into law in 2017.