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Just in Hamburg, probably on the road again soon: the yacht »Solandge«
Photo: Markus Scholz / picture alliance / dpa
The 85-meter-long mega yacht "Solandge" has been in port for months, and now it should be allowed to leave Hamburg - although there are rumors that it belongs to a Russian oligarch.
After a detailed investigation, however, this could not be confirmed, as a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Economics announced.
First, the NDR reported about it.
A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Economics told the NDR that “all known indications were followed up intensively”.
International partners, but also the Federal Criminal Police Office, are said to have been involved in the investigation.
According to several media reports, the Solandge belongs to the Russian businessman Suleiman Kerimov, who has been on the European Union's sanctions list since mid-March.
Ultimately, however, no evidence was found that the ship belonged to the Russian oligarch.
The "Solandge" has been overhauled in a dock at the Bremen shipyard Blohm + Voss since the end of last year.
Now she seems to be ready to leave: the yacht had been circling in the harbor for hours at the end of the previous week.
According to the NDR, she is now supposed to leave the port "probably in the course of the week".
The ownership of such ships is notoriously difficult to ascertain.
Many of the yachts are registered in tax havens, the "Solandge" for example is said to be registered in Malta.
Whoever uses the yacht is often not visible in the ship registers, instead many of the ships officially belong to letterbox companies.
For example, in the case of the super yacht “Dilbar”, which is still in the port of Hamburg and is assigned to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanow.
On paper, it's owned by a shell company in the Cayman Islands.
In contrast to the »Solandge«, however, the Dilbar is not ready to depart: it is still lying in a dry deck at the Blohm + Voss shipyard.
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