greek billionaire yacht

10 of the most impressive superyachts owned by billionaires

From a sailing yacht owned by a russian billionaire industrialist to the luxury launch of the patek philippe ceo, here are the best billionaire-owned boats on the water….

Words: Jonathan Wells

There’s something about billionaires and big boats . Whether they’re superyachts or megayachts, men with money love to splash out on these sizeable sea-going giants. And that all began in 1954 — with the big dreams of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

Onassis, keen to keep his luxury lifestyle afloat when at sea, bought Canadian anti-submarine frigate HMCS Stormont after World War II. He spent millions turning it into an opulent super yacht, named it after his daughter — and the Christina O kicked off a trend among tycoons. To this day, the world’s richest men remain locked in an arms race to build the biggest, fastest, most impressive superyacht of all. Here are 10 of our favourites…

Eclipse, owned by Roman Abramovich

Built by: Blohm+Voss of Hamburg, with interiors and exteriors designed by Terence Disdale. Launched in 2009, it cost $500 million (the equivalent of £623 million today).

Owned by: Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, the owner of private investment company Millhouse LLC and owner of Chelsea Football Club. His current net worth is $17.4 billion.

Key features: 162.5 metres in length / 9 decks / Top speed of 22 knots / Two swimming pools / Disco hall / Mini submarine / 2 helicopter pads / 24 guest cabins

Sailing Yacht A, owned by Andrey Melnichenko

Built by: Nobiskrug, a shipyard on the Eider River in Germany. The original idea came from Jacques Garcia, with interiors designed by Philippe Starck and a reported price tag of over $400 million.

Owned by: Russian billionaire industrialist Andrey Melnichenko, the main beneficiary of both the fertiliser producing EuroChem Group and the coal energy company SUEK. Though his current net worth is $18.7 billion, Sailing Yacht A was seized in Trieste on 12 March 2022 due to the EU’s sanctions on Russian businessmen.

Key features: 119 metres in length / 8 decks / Top speed of 21 knots / Freestanding carbon-fibre rotating masts / Underwater observation pod / 14 guests

Symphony, owned by Bernard Arnault

Built by: Feadship, the fabled shipyard headquartered in Haarlem in The Netherlands. With an exterior designed by Tim Heywood, it reportedly cost around $150 million to construct.

Owned by: French billionaire businessman and art collector Bernard Arnault. Chairman and chief executive of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company, his current net worth is $145.8 billion.

Key features: 101.5 metres in length / 6 decks / Top speed of 22 knots / 6-metre glass-bottom swimming pool / Outdoor cinema / Sundeck Jacuzzi / 8 guest cabins

Faith, owned by Michael Latifi

Built by: Similarly to Symphony above, also Feadship. With exteriors designed by Beaulieu-based RWD, and interiors by Chahan Design, it cost a reported $200 million to construct in 2017.

Owned by: Until recently, Canadian billionaire and part-owner of the Aston Martin Formula 1 Team , Lawrence Stroll. Recently sold to Michael Latifi, father of F1 star Nicholas , a fellow Canadian businessman with a net worth of just under $2 billion.

Key features: 97 metres in length / 9 guest cabins / Glass-bottom swimming pool — with bar / Bell 429 helicopter

Amevi, owned by Lakshmi Mittal

Built by: The Oceanco shipyard, also in The Netherlands. With exterior design by Nuvolari & Lenard and interior design by Alberto Pinto, it launched in 2007 (and cost around $125 million to construct).

Owned by: Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and CEO of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company. He owns 20% of Queen Park Rangers, and has a net worth of $18 billion.

Key features: 80 metres in length / 6 decks / Top speed of 18.5 knots / On-deck Jacuzzi / Helipad / Swimming Pool / Tender Garage / 8 guest cabins

Odessa II, owned by Len Blavatnik

Built by: Nobiskrug, the same German shipyard that built Sailing Yacht A . Both interior and exterior were created by Focus Yacht Design, and the yacht was launched in 2013 with a cost of $80 million.

Owned by: British businessman Sir Leonard Blavatnik. Founder of Access Industries — a multinational industrial group with current holdings in Warner Music Group, Spotify and the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat — he is worth $39.9 billion.

Key features: 74 metres in length / 6 guest cabins / Top speed of 18 knots / Intimate beach club / Baby grand piano / Private master cabhin terrace / Outdoor cinema

Nautilus, owned by Thierry Stern

Built by: Italian shipyard Perini Navi in 2014. With interiors by Rémi Tessier and exterior design by Philippe Briand, Nautilus was estimated to cost around $90 million to construct.

Owned by: Patek Philippe CEO Thierry Stern. Alongside his Gulstream G650 private jet, Nautilus — named for the famous sports watch — is his most costly mode of transport. His current net worth is $3 billion.

Key features: 73 metres in length / 7 guest cabins / Top speed of 16.5 knots / Dedicated wellness deck / 3.5 metre resistance pool / Underfloor heating / Jet Skis

Silver Angel, owned by Richard Caring

Built by: Luxury Italian boatbuilder Benetti. Launched in 2009, the yacht’s interior has been designed by Argent Design and her exterior styling is by Stefano Natucci.

Owned by: Richard Caring, British businessman and multi-millionaire (his wealth peaked at £1.05 billion, so he still makes the cut). Chairman of Caprice Holdings, he owns The Ivy restaurants.

Key features: 64.5 metres in length / Cruising speed of 15 knots / 7 guest cabins / Lalique decor / 5 decks / Oval Jacuzzi pool / Sun deck bar / Aft deck dining table

Lady Beatrice, owned by Frederick Barclay

Built by: Feadship and Royal Van Lent in 1993. Exteriors were created by De Voogt Naval Architects, with interiors by Bannenberg Designs. She cost the equivalent of £63 million to build.

Owned by: Sir David Barclay and his late brother Sir Frederick. The ‘Barclay Brothers’ had joint business pursuits including The Spectator , The Telegraph and delivery company Yodel. Current net worth: £7 billion.

Key features: 60 metres in length / 18 knots maximum speed / Monaco home port / Named for the brothers’ mother, Beatrice Cecelia Taylor / 8 guest cabins

Space, owned by Laurence Graff

Built by: Space was the first in Feadship’s F45 Vantage series , styled by Sinot Exclusive Yacht Design and launched in 2007. She cost a reported $25 million to construct.

Owned by: Laurence Graff, English jeweller and billionaire businessman. As the founder of Graff Diamonds, he has a global business presence and a current net worth of $6.26 billion.

Key features: 45 metres in length / Top speed of 16 knots / Al fresco dining area / Sun deck Jacuzzi / Breakfast bar / Swimming platform / Steam room

Want more yachts? Here’s the handcradfted, homegrown history of Princess…

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A Superyacht Gave a Lifeline to 100 Migrants Thrown Into the Sea

A $175 million vessel responded to a distress call and helped rescue survivors in one of the Mediterranean’s worst wrecks in decades, reflecting the new inequality of the seas.

By Jason Horowitz and Matina Stevis-Gridneff

Jason Horowitz reported from Souda, Greece, on the island of Crete, and Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Brussels.

The superyacht Mayan Queen IV was sailing smoothly in clear weather through the dark and calm Mediterranean in the early hours of June 14 when it received a call about a migrant ship in distress four nautical miles away.

About 20 minutes later, shortly before 3 a.m., the towering $175-million yacht, owned by the family of a Mexican silver magnate, arrived at the scene. The distressed boat had already sunk. All the four-person crew could see were the lights of a Greek Coast Guard vessel scanning the water’s inky surface. But they could hear the screams of survivors.

“Horrible,” said the Mayan Queen’s captain, Richard Kirkby, who described the sea as “pitch black” on that nearly moonless night.

In a few hours, the 305-foot Mayan Queen, more accustomed to pleasure boating to Monaco and Italy with billionaires and their friends aboard, was filled with 100 desperate, dehydrated and sea-soaked Pakistani, Syrian, Palestinian and Egyptian men, as it played an unexpected role in one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks in decades. As many as 650 men, women and children drowned .

The incongruous image of the devastated survivors disembarking the Mayan Queen on a port in Kalamata last week underlined what has become the strange reality of the modern Mediterranean, where the superyachts of the superrich, equipped with swimming pools, Jacuzzis, helipads and other trappings of luxury, share the seas with the most destitute on smuggler-operated boats perilously crossing from northern Africa to Europe.

The world’s waterways have become a reflection of global inequalities in recent days. In the North Atlantic, a billionaire, his son and other businessmen set out to explore the wreck of the Titanic on a luxury tourist submersible that has gone missing, touching off an international search and rescue operation .

Days earlier, the Greek authorities repeatedly decided not to assist a roughly 80- to 100-foot fishing trawler stuffed with as many as 750 people fleeing desperate poverty and the displacement of war in Greece’s search-and-rescue area. Only when the ship sank in front of the Coast Guard did the authorities spur to action, calling on the Mayan Queen, one of the world’s 100 largest yachts.

“As soon as you are notified and in close proximity and you can do so, you are obligated,” to try and rescue, said Aphrodite Papachristodoulou, an expert in the law of the sea and human rights at the Irish Centre for Human Rights. She said it was not unusual to have luxury yachts in the area.

Why the Greek authorities needed to call on a passing yacht to come to the rescue of an overcrowded and rickety ship that they had been monitoring and communicating with in their search-and-rescue area for a full day, she said, was less obvious.

“The practice of nonassistance or delay of assistance and why the Greeks were not proceeding to the rescue is another question mark,” she said.

There was one Greek Coast Guard vessel already on the scene when the Mayan Queen arrived, and its seamen were in a raft saving scores of men from the water. The crew of the Mayan Queen lowered its life raft with three of its own crew, and followed the cries for help, pulling 15 men onboard, the captain said.

A vivid retelling of events provided under sworn testimony by Mr. Kirkby, and obtained by The New York Times, added that none of those saved were wearing life vests. Some clutched floating pieces of wood. For hours afterward, the yacht crew kept eerily quiet and beamed its brightest lights to better hear and see.

Investigators are still seeking to understand what exactly happened as the trawler sank trying to reach Italy — whether smugglers refused assistance and panic on the ship caused it to capsize, as the Coast Guard claims, or whether a failed attempt to tow the ship caused it to sink, as some survivors contend. In either case, it fell to the Mayan Queen to shoulder much of the rescue.

The gleaming yacht, sailing from Italy, transported 100 of the 104 survivors and four Greek coast guard officials — as well as about a dozen bodies — to port.

“I would like to think that we did what anyone would do,” said Mr. Kirkby, who used to pilot the superyacht Le Grand Bleu , of the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. He added on Wednesday that, because of a nondisclosure agreement and the “contentious” circumstances of the ship’s sinking, he could not say much more.

“I wouldn’t like to see the Coast Guard get a bad rap,” he said. “They did all they could.”

Mr. Kirkby spoke briefly in a cafe in the port of Souda, where the yacht was docked near a cruise ship delivering tourists to the Cretan city of Chania, an industrial Russian vessel and a parking lot filled with stationary truck containers. The vessel’s crew carried out chores, and like the captain wore T-shirts featuring a drawing of the yacht on the back and a B, for the family of the ship’s late owner, Alberto Baillères, on the breast pocket.

On Wednesday morning one crewman carried an umbrella up the gangway that the migrants unsteadily walked down last week, some of them met by stretchers and health workers with foil blankets. By the ship’s stern, with the silvered letters of “Mayan Queen” and “George Town” sparkling in the hot sun and under pumping house music, crew members worked where the migrants huddled upon reaching the Kalamata port.

According to Boat International, a yachting news site, the Mayan Queen, which flies a Cayman Islands flag, is in the top 100 for the world’s largest superyachts. It was built by the Hamburg-based shipbuilder Blohm & Voss GmbH in 2008 and designed by Tim Heywood , a favorite of the yachting set.

“Her power comes from two diesel engines. She can accommodate up to 26 guests, with 24 crew members,” the magazine wrote. “She is built with a teak deck, a steel hull, and aluminium superstructure.”

That craftsmanship stood in stark contrast to the condition of the ship that hundreds of migrants, paying thousands of dollars a head, crammed into last week in Libya, in the hopes of reaching Italy.

Witnesses said in sworn testimony obtained by The Times that passengers suffered beatings with belts and deprivation. Smugglers threw food into the water. Pakistani men were kept in the hold and hundreds of them sank with women and children into one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean. Only the lucky ones reached the Mayan Queen’s decks.

At around 6 a.m. on the morning of the wreck, as the sun came up, Mr. Kirkby received a call to transport all the 100 rescued men from the Coast Guard vessel to the nearest port.

He offered dry clothes and water to the men, some of whom, he said, “were in a bad way.” For hours the survivors, wrapped in gray blankets and mourning their losses, sailed on the superyacht. At 11:20 a.m. the Mayan Queen and its unexpected passengers arrived to port.

“We took them all,” Mr. Kirkby said.

Niki Kitsantonis contributed reporting from Athens.

Jason Horowitz is the Rome bureau chief, covering Italy, the Vatican, Greece and other parts of Southern Europe. He previously covered the 2016 presidential campaign, the Obama administration and Congress, with an emphasis on political profiles and features. More about Jason Horowitz

Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Brussels bureau chief, leading coverage of the European Union. She joined The Times in 2019. More about Matina Stevis-Gridneff

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Billionaire superyacht showdown: who’s who in st. barths for new years 2020.

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Gustavia Harbor in St. Barths

I make it an annual tradition to visit St. Barths during the holidays, and this year the island is looking the best it has in many years. Lush green landscapes, crystal clear and very warm waters, clean beaches, and famed resorts opening with stunning new additions. Locals tell me the hurricane that devastated the island ultimately led to much-needed improvements with infrastructure, and magically the island has turned green again.

Gallery: Superyachts In St. Barths New Years 2020

The legendary superyacht showdown, started early with several high profile billionaires already anchored outside of Gustavia and neighboring St. Maarten, and Antigua. Many will stay throughout Christmas on the island of Antigua and then party with the traditional fireworks New Years Eve celebration in St Barths.

Superyacht showdown in St.Barths

Many of the resorts and hot spots, including one of my favorite restaurants Bonito, hosted New Year’s Eve parties, and iconic Nikki Beach offered superstar DJ Kygo. However, it is aboard the superyachts where the rich and famous ended up partying into the wee hours.

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Here is a selection of some of the largest and most spectacular yachts that are in and around St. Barths for the holidays. This list was updated daily throughout New Years Eve with new arrivals.

Eclipse, owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich,

ECLIPSE  (533 feet) owned by Russian Steel magnate  Roman Abramovich *currently in St Barths

Ocean Victory owned by Russian steel magnate Victor Rashnikov

OCEAN VICTORY (459 feet) owned by Russian steel magnate Victor Rashnikov *currently in St Barths

David Geffen's superyacht RISING SUN

RISING SUN  (454 feet) owned by entertainment mogul  David Geffen *currently in St Barths

Le Grand Bleu yacht owned by Evgeny Shvidler

LE GRAND BLEU  (371 feet) owned by Russian oil billionaire  Evgeny Shvidler *currently in St Barths

Superyacht ANNA owned by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev

ANNA (360 feet) owned by Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev *currently in St Barths

ANDROMEDA (351 feet) owned by mystery billionaire *currently in St Barths

SYMPHONY owned by billionaire Bernard Arnault

SYMPHONY  (333 feet) owned by Louis Vuitton billionaire  Bernard Arnault *currently in St Barths

Yacht LIMITLESS owned by Victoria Secret's Leslie Wexner

LIMITLESS (315 feet) owned by Victoria Secret’s Leslie Wexner *currently in St Barths

Yacht MADSUMMER owned by real estate icon Jeffrey Soffer

MADSUMMER (312 feet) owned by Florida real estate icon Jeffrey Soffer *currently in St Barths

EOS super sailing yacht owned by Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg

EOS (305 feet) owned by Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg *currently in St Barths

AQUARIUS (301 feet) owned by casino magnate Steve Wynn *currently in St Barths

DREAMBOAT (295 feet) owned by Home Depot founder Arthur Blank *currently in St Barths

DAR (295 feet) owned by iron/steel magnate Ziyad al Manaseer *currently in St Barths

ATHENA (295 feet) owned by computer guru Jim Clark *currently in St Barths

INFINITY (290 feet) owned by billionaire hardware store magnate Eric Smidt *currently in St Barths

MALTESE FALCON (289 feet) owned by hedge fund guru Elena Ambrosiadou *currently in Antigua

ECSTASEA  (282 feet) owned by Pakistani shipping magnate Alshair Fiyaz *currently in St Barths

AQUILA (278 feet) owned by Walmart heiress Ann Walton *currently in St Barths

HERE COMES THE SUN (272 feet) owned by drilling CEO Alexander Dzhaparidze *currently in Antigua

ALFA NERO  (269 feet) owned by Russian fertilizer magnate Andrey Guryev *currently in St Thomas

ELYSIAN (252 feet) owned by Boston Red Sox honcho John Henry *currently in St Barths

AURORA (243 feet) owned by Russian construction magnate Andrey Molchanov *currently in St Barths

WHEELS (247 feet) owned by Uniwheels CEO Ralf Schmid *currently in St Barths

MOGAMBO  (242 feet) owned by Ukrainian billionaire WhatsApp founder Jan Koum, he also owns the 182 foot support vessel Power Play. *both currently in St Barths

ODESSA   II  (242 feet) owned by billionaire investor Len Blavatnik  *currently in Antigua

SIXTH SENSE (242 feet) rumored owner is Carnival Cruise CEO Micky Arison **currently in St Barths

SIREN (241 feet) owned by the real estate billionaire Reuben Brothers *currently in St Barths

GRACE E (240 feet) owned by Keurig Coffee billionaire Robert Stiller *currently in St Barths

NAUTILUS (240 feet) owned by Patek Philippe CEO Thierry Stern *currently in BVI

YALLA  (240 feet) owned by Egyptian telecom billionaire Naguib family  *currently in St Barths

PLANET NINE (240 feet) owned by Banking heir Nathaniel Rothschild *currently in St Johns

TITANIA (239 feet) owned by British mobile phone billionaire John Caudwell *currently in Antigua

AXIOMA (239 feet) owned by Russian banking icon Dmitry Pumpyansky *currently in St Barths

UTOPIA (235 feet) owned by mutual funds investor Bill Miller *currently in St Barths

SKAT (232 feet) owned by Microsoft billionaire Charles Simonyi *currently in St Barths

SHERAKHAN (229 feet) owned by Dutch ship builder Jan Verkerk *currently in St Barths

SPECTRE (227 feet) owned by Corona beer importer Rob Sands *currently in St Barths

INTREPID  (226 feet) support yacht to INFINITY owned by tool retailer  Eric Smidt *currently in St Barths

LADY S  (225 feet) owned by Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins *currently in St Barths

SYCARA V (223 feet) owned by luxury car dealer Ray Catena *currently in St Barths

OKTO (217 feet) owned by Greek steel magnate Theodore Angelopoulos *currently in St Barths

INVICTUS (214 feet) owned by real estate developer Rick Caruso *currently in St Barths

LIONESS V  (208 feet) formerly owned by British retailer  Sir Philip Green *currently in St Barths

LADY BRITT  (207 feet) owned by Swedish jewelry magnate Sten Warborn *currently in St Barths

SATORI (207 feet) owned by US steel magnate Eric Benson *currently in St Barths

BATON ROUGE (205 feet) owned by construction magnate Martin Bouygues *currently in St Barths

PARTY GIRL (205 feet) owned by pet store magnate Charles West *currently in St Barths

FLAG (205 feet) owned by fashion icon Tommy Hilfiger *currently in St Barths

LADY KATHRYN (203 feet) owned by asphalt contractor Leo Vecellio *currently in St Barths

SEALYON (202 feet) owned by real estate investor Anthony Lyons *currently in St Barths

SAMADHI (200 feet) owned by hedge fund billionaire Daniel Loeb *currently in St Barths

BLUE MOON  (198 feet) owned by investor Richard Duchossois *currently in St Barths

ROCK IT  (198 feet) owned by sandwich guru Jimmy John Liautaud *currently in St Barths

MIA ELISE II (198 feet) owned by car dealer Terry Taylor *currently in St Barths

EXCELLENCE (198 feet) owned by car dealer Herb Chambers *currently in St Barths

SEAHAWK (196 feet) owned by Esprit fashion brand founder Jurgen Friedrich *currently in St Maarten

SKYFALL  (190 feet) owned by real estate developer Roy Carroll *currently in St Barths

GALAXY  (184 feet) owned by Swiss entrepreneur Hans Thomas Gross *currently in St Barths

TURQUOISE (181) owned by Scottish investor Douglas Barrowman *currently in St Barths

ELIXIR  (180 feet) owned by Dutch investor Rob Thielen *currently in St Barths

GENE MACHINE  (180 feet) owned by Engineer/Scientist Jonathan Rothberg *currently in St Barths

STARFIRE (177 feet) owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn *currently in St Thomas

KISSES  (175 feet) owned by Florida car dealer Norman Braman *currently in St Barths

*special thanks to  Superyachtfan.com for owner sourcing and details.

Any corrections or additions please email theluxeworld(at)gmail.com.

Here is live video I shot this week in St. Barths of the amazing 454 foot RISING SUN

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Why the U.S. put a $1 million bounty on a Russian yacht’s alleged manager

On Sept. 3, 2020, the staff of a $90 million yacht placed an order with a U.S. company for a set of luxury bathrobes that came to $2,624.35.

For roughly two years before that, according to federal prosecutors, the yacht’s management had been falsely claiming it was working for a boat named “Fanta.” But the luxury bathrobes came embroidered with a monogram that, prosecutors said, revealed the yacht’s true identity: “Tango.”

That was a problem, officials say in court papers, because Tango was owned by a Russian billionaire under U.S. sanctions, and doing business on his behalf violated federal law.

Late last month, U.S. authorities unveiled a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of the man they say was running the yacht staff and orchestrated the deception with the robes — Vladislav Osipov, 52, a Swiss-based businessman from Russia. In a new indictment , federal prosecutors say Osipov misled U.S. banks and companies into doing business with the Tango yacht despite the sanctions on the Russian owner, whom the Justice Department has identified as billionaire Viktor Vekselberg .

Osipov has denied the allegations. Osipov’s attorney has said that the government has failed to demonstrate that Vekselberg owned the yacht, and that its management was therefore not a sanctions violation.

The reward offer for Osipov reflects the latest stage in the evolution of the West’s broader financial war against Russia two years into the war in Ukraine, as the United States and its allies increasingly target intermediaries accused of enabling Russian oligarchs to circumvent sanctions.

Many Russians close to President Vladimir Putin have been under sanctions dating to 2014, when Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and sent proxy forces into that country’s eastern Donbas region. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, President Biden vowed to deal a “crushing blow” with a barrage of new sanctions on financial institutions, industries, business executives and others tied to the Kremlin. But roughly two years later, Russia’s economy has proved surprisingly resilient after the nation poured tens of billions of dollars into ramping up its military industry. Moscow has also worked around the sanctions, finding new third parties to supply it with critical military and industrial hardware, as well as countries beyond Europe to buy its oil.

Now, the West is trying to increase the reach of its sanctions by digging deeper into Russian supply chains. Late last month, the Treasury Department announced more than 500 new sanctions targeting Russia , primarily on military and industrial suppliers. The Justice Department also announced charges against two U.S.-based “facilitators” of a Russian state banker who is under sanction, as well as the guilty plea of a dual national based in Atlanta who was accused of laundering $150 million through bank accounts and shell companies on behalf of Russian clients.

Prioritizing criminal charges against — and the arrests of — Western employees of Russia’s elites represents a new escalation of the U.S. financial war against Putin, experts say. One Moscow businessman, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said many influential Russians are concerned about the arrest of two associates of Andrey Kostin, the head of VTB, Russia’s second-biggest state bank. These associates, Vadim Wolfson and Gannon Bond, were charged with helping Kostin evade sanctions by maintaining a $12 million property in Aspen, Colo., for Kostin’s benefit while concealing his ownership. Kostin has said that the charges of sanctions evasion against him are “unfounded” and that he has not violated any laws . Bond has pleaded not guilty; Wolfson hasn’t made an initial court appearance yet.

Wolfson, also known as Vadim Belyaev, had been a Russian billionaire until the Russian government took over his bank in 2017. Bond, 49, is a U.S. citizen from Edgewater, N.J. For all Russians living abroad and working with people in Russia, the threat of criminal charges is a much more worrying prospect than the sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department last month against hundreds of individuals and entities, the businessman said, in part because sanctions are far easier to dodge than criminal charges.

“What you have seen through today’s public announcements are our efforts at really targeting the facilitators who possess the requisite skill set, access, connections that allow the Russian war machine [and] the Russian elites to continually have access to Western services and Western goods,” David Lim, co-director of the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture task force, which is tasked with enforcing U.S. sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, told reporters last month.

Thad McBride, an international trade partner at the law firm Bass Berry & Sims, said the crackdown on intermediaries reflected the natural evolution of the U.S. sanctions campaign in response to Russian adjustments.

“It seems to me they have gone through a comprehensive list of the oligarchs, and you can debate whether or not it’s had a meaningful impact on the Russian war effort,” McBride said. “Because they’re getting smarter about who’s who, they’re finding other people who play meaningful roles in these transactions, even though they’re not showing up in the headlines.”

The charges against Osipov related to his alleged management of the Tango yacht illustrate the mounting potential consequences for people in Europe and the United States who attempt to do business with Russians targeted by Western allies, as well as the opaque structures allegedly employed by those seeking to evade sanctions.

With a net worth estimated by Forbes in 2021 at $9 billion, Vekselberg, 66, has long drawn scrutiny from the West — and sought to safeguard his wealth. He made his initial fortune in aluminum and oil in Russia’s privatization of the 1990s and then expanded into industrial and financial assets in Europe, the United States and Africa, with Putin’s blessing. In addition to the yacht, federal prosecutors say, Vekselberg acquired $75 million worth of properties, including apartments on New York’s Park Avenue and an estate in the Long Island town of Southampton.

Vekselberg, who declined to comment for this article, has not been criminally charged by the Justice Department. In a 2019 interview with the Financial Times, he denounced the sanctions as arbitrary and harmful for international business, saying he had been targeted just because he was Russian and rich and knows Putin.

In April 2018, the Treasury Department under the Trump administration sanctioned Vekselberg and six other Russian oligarchs as part of broader financial penalties over the Kremlin’s invasion of Crimea, support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Vekselberg was also targeted for his work for the Kremlin as chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation, an attempt to create Russia’s version of the Silicon Valley — evidence that appeared to undermine the Russian businessman’s claims that he operated independently of the Kremlin.

But with Vekselberg’s payments monitored by U.S. banks, according to the federal indictment , Osipov used shell companies and intermediaries to avert the bite of sanctions. Vekselberg kept other major assets out of the reach of U.S. authorities by making use of the Treasury Department’s 50 percent ownership rule, which stipulates that it is illegal to transact with firms only if an owner under sanction controls more than 50 percent of the business.

For example, a month after Treasury imposed sanctions on Vekselberg in April 2018, his Renova Innovation Technologies sold its 48.5 percent stake in Swiss engineering giant Sulzer to Tiwel Holding AG, a group that is nevertheless still “beneficially owned” — meaning, owned in practice — by Vekselberg through Columbus Trust, a Cayman Islands trust, according to Sulzer’s corporate filing. Vekselberg’s longtime right-hand man at Renova, Alexei Moskov, replaced one of Vekselberg’s direct representatives on the board. Moskov told The Washington Post that he stepped down from all his executive positions at Renova Group in 2018 after U.S. sanctions were first imposed and from that moment ceased to be Vekselberg’s employee.

The attempts to circumvent the sanctions appear to have found some success in the U.S. legal system. Columbus Nova, a U.S.-based asset management fund controlling more than $100 million in assets in the U.S. financial and tech industry, is run by Vekselberg’s cousin, Andrew Intrater. The firm battled for more than two years to lift a freeze on Columbus Nova’s assets, imposed by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control because of the sanctions on Vekselberg, and won, reaching a settlement agreement with the Treasury Department. After renaming itself Sparrow Capital LLC, Columbus Nova successfully argued that Intrater — not Vekselberg — owns the fund. Intrater argued that the company was 100 percent owned by U.S. citizens and that no individual or entity under sanction held any interest in it. Intrater said Columbus Nova had earned fees for managing investment funds owned by Renova. He said he had repeatedly told Treasury he would not distribute any funds to Vekselberg.

Now Osipov, the alleged manager of Vekselberg’s $90 million yacht, is attempting a similar argument as U.S. authorities seek his arrest on charges of bank fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and violations of sanctions law.

The federal indictment states that the Tango was owned by a shell corporation registered in the British Virgin Islands that was in turn owned by several other companies. The Virgin Islands shell company, authorities say, was controlled by Osipov, who also served in senior roles for multiple companies controlled by Vekselberg. U.S. officials also say Vekselberg ultimately controlled the other companies that owned the Virgin Islands shell company.

According to the indictment, a Tango official instructed a boat management company in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to use a false name for the yacht — “Fanta” — to disguise its true identity from U.S. financial institutions and firms, which try to avoid doing business with an entity or person under sanction.

Working at Osipov’s direction, according to the indictment, employees for Tango bought more than $8,000 worth of goods for the yacht that were unwittingly but illegally processed by U.S. firms and U.S. financial institutions, including navigation software, leather basket magazine holders provided by a bespoke silversmith, and web and computing services. The management company running Tango, run by Osipov, also paid invoices worth more than $180,000 to a U.S. internet service provider, federal prosecutors say.

The Tango was seized by the FBI and Spanish authorities in the Mediterranean not long after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and Osipov was first indicted last year. The owner of the Spanish yacht management company hired by Osipov, Richard Masters, 52, of Britain, was criminally charged last year by federal prosecutors with conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal sanctions law. A request for comment sent to Masters’ firm was not returned.

But in recent court documents, Osipov’s attorney argues that the yacht was not more than 50 percent owned by Vekselberg, and that the government hasn’t demonstrated it was. Barry J. Pollack, an attorney at Harris, St. Laurent and Wechsler, also says the government never warned Osipov of its novel and “unconstitutional” application of federal sanctions law.

“The government points to no precedent that supports its extraordinary interpretation and cites no authority that allows the traditional rules of statutory construction to be turned on their head,” Pollack wrote in a defense filing. The filing adds: “[Osipov] is not a fugitive because he did not engage in any of the allegedly criminal conduct while in the United States, has never resided in the United States, did not flee from the United States, and has not concealed himself.”

Still, the State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program has said it will provide up to $1 million for information leading to Osipov’s arrest, warning that he may visit Herrliberg, Switzerland; Majorca, Spain; or Moscow.

The case demonstrates the extent of the U.S. commitment to tighten the screws on those seen as aiding Russian elites, even if they themselves are not closely tied to the Kremlin.

“When DOJ levels legal action against an individual or entity, they have quite a bit of evidence, especially because the threshold to press charges for money-laundering and sanctions evasion is so high,” said Kim Donovan, director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative within the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. “We’ve had quite a bit of experience targeting Russia directly, and what you’re starting to see is the U.S. go after the facilitators enabling sanctions evasion. That’s where the U.S. is focusing its efforts right now.”

The Virgin of Vladimir

Gleb Fetisov Net Worth

Gleb fetisov.

Russian businessman Gleb Fetisov is the owner and chairman of the board of directors of My Bank who has an estimated net worth of $1.22 billion as of April 2016 according to Forbes. He is also the 53rd richest person in Russia and is ranked 792nd in the list of World Billionaires.

Born Gleb Gennadievich Fetisov, he has accumulated his estimated net worth of $1.9 billion when he started his career at the Central Economic Institute of Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1990. He has also held various leading positions in commercial banks, and financial and industrial companies between 1993 and 1996. From 1996 to 2000, he was the arbitration manager of Achinsk alumina refinery in the Krasnoyarsk region.

Considered one of the most successful Russian businessmen and investors, Gleb Fetisov gained majority of his earnings as the majority stakeholder and Chairman of the Board in My Bank group. He also has a large stake in Altimo, the company that inherited the assets of Alfa Eco, the food-and-commodity trading business. In April 2012, Altimo sold its 25.1% stake for $5.2 billion to mobile phone operator Megafon owned by Alisher Usmanov . He has made around $740 million in the deal.

Mr. Fetisov is a significant investor in My Decker Capital, an investment firm in Beijing that has a fund that has poured around $100 million into New Cooperation Trade Chain, China’s largest retail chain, in 2011.

A graduate of Moscow State University with a degree in Economics, he also earned his doctorate in the university. He joined Alfa Group in 1995 and worked first at Alfa Eco. He later led the group in the takeover of an aluminum plant in Siberia. He is also a lobbyist and a member of the Federation Council, the upper house of the parliament. He stepped down in 2009. He became the head of the Green Alliance People’s Party, a new political party, in the spring of 2012.