Italy Puts Russian Oligarch Mazepin On Wanted List
8- 22.01.2023, 22:26
- 16,848
The sanctioned businessman is accused of stealing yachts.
Italian authorities are searching for the head of Russian Uralkali, Minsk-born Dmitry Mazepin, after his two yachts confiscated under EU sanctions disappeared from Sardinia.
According to the Italian ANSA news agency, prosecutors are examining records in the Tuscan resort town of Forte dei Marmi, where the businessman is a financial resident. The town's mayor's office has already issued a public notice of fines against Mazepin over the disappearance of the yachts.
Two yachts - both under the name Aldabra but with maritime flags of two different countries - disappeared from the Sardinian port of Olbia in the summer of 2022. An investigation by Olbia's financial police revealed that the first vessel, worth between €700,000 and €1 million, left Olbia in June and arrived in the small port of Bizerte in Tunisia.
The second yacht left Olbia a few weeks later, heading first for Savona, a port in the northern Italian region of Liguria, then for Turkey. The current whereabouts of the yachts and their owner are unknown.
Mazepin used the services of a foreign company that in turn hired a Sardinian captain to ferry the yachts to 'friendly' countries. The intermediary and the captain are fined up to €500,000. Mazepin faces the same punishment.
A villa in Sardinia owned by Mazepin is also among the frozen Russian assets. Mazepin bought the villa, named Rocky Ram, from Carlo De Benedetti, an Italian businessman and former owner of the La Repubblica newspaper.
Italian police believe Mazepin is now in Russia. This is the first time in Italy when a Russian with assets frozen in the country has escaped EU sanctions.
Dmitry Mazepin and his son Nikita, a former Formula 1 racing driver, were placed on EU sanctions lists on March 9, 2022 as "supporting and benefiting from or providing a significant source of income to the Russian government". Mazepin was put on the blacklist after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24.
