The yacht of Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin has gone missing on the Italian island of Sardinia, writes The Guardian. The vessel, arrested in connection with Mazepin's entry into the EU sanctions list, has not been seen since the summer.
The 22-meter Aldabra, worth between €700,000 and €1 million, was moored in the port of the municipality of Olbia and arrested in March, a few weeks after the start of the war. The yacht was there until June and disappeared a few hours before the identity of its owner was officially established. According to police, Mazepin hired a foreign company to take the yacht out of Italy. She, in turn, hired a Sardinian captain who was supposed to be directly involved in transportation.
The commander of the financial police group of Olbia, Carlo Lazzari, conducted an investigation and found out that the yacht stopped in the small port of Bizerte in Tunisia, but where she is now is unknown. Police said Mazepin and the Sardinian captain would be fined up to €500,000 for illegally taking the ship out. The Guardian notes that this is the first case in Italy when a Russian with assets frozen in the country managed to avoid sanctions.
Mazepin is a billionaire and co-owner of the united chemical company Uralchem. He and his son Nikita, a Formula 1 driver, were included in the EU sanctions list on March 9 as Russians "supporting and benefiting from the government of the Russian Federation or providing it with a significant source of income." As the EU authorities specified, sanctions were imposed against businessmen who met with Vladimir Putin on February 24.