After the confiscated luxury yacht of Russian oligarch Dmitri Mazepin mysteriously disappeared from a port in Sardinia in June, Italian detectives have now been able to track them down in Tunisia. The crew is said to have made a stopover there after the 22-meter ship “Aldabra” was secretly and illegally transported across the country’s border by a local captain. The yacht is said to be worth a million euros. Where the “Aldabra” is currently located is not known.
In addition to the “Aldabra”, Mazepin’s luxury villa “Rocky Ram” on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda was also frozen shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when fertilizer company owner and father of former Formula 1 driver Nikita Mazepin was found on the EU sanctions list. The yacht lay in Olbia harbor until June, before June simply disappeared – just a few hours before it was officially confirmed that the “Aldebra” really belongs to Mazepin.
Investigators first had to “examine the chain of ownership”
“Mazepin knew he was on the list but was able to make the most of the time we spent establishing that the boat was his. We had to investigate the ownership chain,” said a source for Sardinia’s financial police, according to the Guardian. “We were confirming ownership when she was taken.”
The yacht’s illegal voyage was organized by a company, which in turn hired a Sardinian captain to bring the yacht out of Italy. The skipper and the owner of the yacht around the magnate Mazepin now risk a fine of up to 500,000 euros for the “theft” of the yacht.
Before the war in Ukraine, Sardinia was a popular holiday destination for oligarchs. Mazepin bought the villa “Rocky Ram” there from the Italian businessman and publisher Carlo De Benedetti a few years ago. In total, Italy confiscated villas and yachts from wealthy Russians for more than 900 million euros.
Source: Krone
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