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»Dilbar«: In this photo, the luxury yacht is moored to the quay wall of the Blohm+Voss shipyard in the Port of Hamburg
Photo: Christian Charisius / dpa
The luxury yacht "Dilbar" in the port of Hamburg has been detained as part of the EU's sanctions on Russia.
At more than 500 million euros, the ship is one of the most expensive luxury yachts in the world.
It has now been subject to a ban on disposal and may "no longer be sold, rented or encumbered," as a spokesman for the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) told the German Press Agency.
NDR, WDR and "Süddeutsche Zeitung" had previously reported.
At the beginning of March there had already been speculation about a confiscation, which initially did not come true.
The problem was proof of ownership of the yacht.
This is absolutely necessary in order to be able to put them on the chain.
In the super yacht scene in particular, however, ships are often registered in tax havens via holding companies or letterbox companies in order to disguise the true owners.
In the case of the “Dilbar”, the BKA was able to identify a nested offshore company construct and thus disclose the real ownership structure, said the spokesman.
The owner is the sister of the oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who is loyal to the Kremlin.
Nested Ownership
Originally, Usmanov himself had been accepted as the owner.
However, BKA investigations have revealed that Usmanov indirectly transferred assets to his sister Gulbakhor Ismailova back in 2017.
Officially, Navis Marine Ltd.
from the Cayman Islands owner of the »Dilbar«.
However, its shareholder is the Cypriot holding company Almenor Holdings Ltd., which in turn is managed by the Swiss Pomerol Capital SA in trust for the benefit of »The Sisters Trust«.
"Since 2017, Alisher Usmanov is no longer a shareholder of this trust company, making his sister, Gulbakhor Ismailova, the sole beneficial owner of the yacht 'Dilbar'," according to the EU sanctions list published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
According to the ship tracking service Vesselfinder, the "Dilbar" has been in the port of Hamburg since the beginning of January.
Since then she has been pimped up in the dry dock at the Blohm+Voss shipyard.
Since she is currently not ready to sail, she cannot leave the port.
The ship was built in 2016, is 156 meters long and 24 meters wide.
mamk/dpa