Russian oligarch who just got his 255-foot yacht seized by Spanish law enforcement once faced questioning by Mueller's team
Spanish authorities seized the 255-foot yacht of a Russian oligarch closely tied to Vladimir Putin.
Officials seized Viktor Vekselberg's yacht at the request of the US Justice Department.
Vekselberg previously had a run-in with US law enforcement in 2018 during the Mueller probe.
At the request of the US Justice Department, Spain's Civil Guard on Monday seized a mega-yacht named "Tango" in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the country's Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea.
In court documents ahead of the seizure, an FBI agent said the yacht belongs to the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg — a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech, and other assets.
The Justice Department on Monday hailed the move as the first seizure in the Biden administration's sanctions initiative targeting the finances and luxury property of Russian elites closely tied to Putin. But for Vekselberg, who was sanctioned in 2018 and again shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine this year, it was hardly the first run-in with US law enforcement.
He previously faced scrutiny from a relatively short-lived but high-profile corner of US law enforcement: former special counsel Robert Mueller.
During its investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, Mueller's team probed Vekselberg over his meetings with Donald Trump's onetime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. In 2017, just 11 days before Trump's inauguration, Vekselberg met with Cohen on the 26th floor of the Trump Tower.
Vekselberg was joined at the meeting by his American cousin, Andrew Intrater. Intrater, who donated $250,000 to Trump's 2017 inaugural committee, is the head of the US investment firm Columbus Nova. The company paid Cohen about $500,000 in consulting fees between January and August 2017.
In 2018, Intrater told the New York Times that Vekselberg and Cohen had discussed their mutual desire to improve US-Russia relations during the Trump administration. He said they met a total of three times.
Intrater and Vekselberg were also thrust into the spotlight after a lawyer for the adult film star Stormy Daniels released a memo claiming that $500,000 in hush money was routed through Columbus Nova to a shell company Cohen had created. Columbus Nova denied that Vekselberg had played any role in the payments to Cohen.
Vekselberg was also one of six Putin-allied Russians who attended Trump's inauguration in January 2017. And according to federal filings reviewed by The Washington Post, two of Vekselberg's American associates donated a combined $1.25 million to Trump's inaugural committee.
Mueller interviewed Vekselberg in early 2018 after the businessman landed at a New York City-area airport.
The special counsel's focus on Russian oligarchs came as investigators examined whether wealthy Russians illegally funneled money, either directly or indirectly, into Trump's 2016 campaign or inauguration. Prosecutors were also said to be interested in whether wealthy Russians used American donors or US companies with political action committees to inject money into the election.
In court documents, US law enforcement authorities alleged that Vekselberg purchased the Tango in 2011 and, in the decade since, used shell companies to obfuscate his ownership interest and oversight bank oversight of transactions related to the yacht. The Justice Department estimated the ship's value at "$90 million or more."
Despite sanctions against him, Vekselberg and others working for him made payments in US dollars through American banks for the Tango's support and maintenance, the Justice Department said. Among those expenses was a payment for a December 2020 stay at a luxury resort in the Maldives and mooring fees for the yacht.
On Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the seizure was just the beginning of a special task force's work.
"Today marks our task force's first seizure of an asset belonging to a sanctioned individual with close ties to the Russian regime. It will not be the last," Attorney General Merrick Garland said. "Together, with our international partners, we will do everything possible to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war."
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