Russian oligarch’s yacht has disappeared from Sardinian port - The Guardian

This is reported by the Guardian.

The luxury yacht of a Russian oligarch, allegedly confiscated under EU sanctions, mysteriously disappeared from the port on the Italian island of Sardinia. The 22-meter Aldabra belongs to Dmitry Mazepin, a billionaire owner of a mineral fertilizer company and father of a former Formula-1 pilot Nikita Mazepin.

It is reported that the ship is estimated from 700 thousand to 1 million euros. 

The yacht was moored in the port of Olbia and confiscated in March, when Mazepin was added to the sanctions list, within weeks of starting a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. She stayed there until June.

Guardian writes that the yacht disappeared a few hours before it was officially confirmed as Mazepin's property.

"Mazepin knew he was on the list but managed to make the most of the period during which we were working to establish that the boat belonged to him, as we had to investigate the chain of ownership. We were in the process of confirming when it was taken away," a source in the Sardinian financial Police Department said.

Police said Mazepin hired a foreign company that recruited a Sardinian captain to move the yacht out of Italy. The yacht subsequently stopped at the small port of Biserta in Tunisia, but its current location is unknown.

The company that illegally exported the ship from Italy faces a fine of up to 500 thousand euros. This is the first time in Italy that a Russian citizen with frozen assets in the country managed to avoid EU sanctions, the newspaper writes.

"This yacht has never even left Sardinia before. So you can see an attitude that was evidently aimed at subtracting it from the rules," the police source added.

It is reported that Mazepin bought a villa called Rocky Ram from Carlo De Benedetti of an Italian businessman and former owner of the newspaper La Repubblica.