GIBRALTAR, March 21 – A luxury superyacht linked to the owner of Russia’s largest steel pipe maker, currently under UK and EU sanctions, docked in Gibraltar on Monday and was then detained by authorities.
Western sanctions against Russian oligarchs over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine have sparked an exodus of luxury yachts from Europe in recent weeks, several of which are headed for the Maldives, which has no extradition treaty with the United States.
Reuters television footage showed the ‘Axioma’, believed to be owned by Dmitrievich Pumpyansky, owner of steel group TMK (TRMK.MM), moored in Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula and a Maltese flag flies.
Britain last week imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian individuals and entities, allowing authorities to freeze their assets.
Refinitiv data shows the 72-metre vessel is owned by a British Virgin Islands holding company called Pyrene Investments. An article published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists as part of the leaked Panama Papers names Pumpyansky as the beneficiary of the stake.
Forbes and the specialist magazine Superyacht Fan also name him as the owner of the Axioma.
The Government of Gibraltar confirmed in a statement that the Axioma arrived in port after requesting permission to enter the country and was “confirmed as the subject of an arrest operation by a leading international bank in the High Court of Gibraltar”.
“The ship is now subject to arrest by the Admiralty Marshal until further notice,” it said, without specifying creditors’ legal claims against the ship or the shipowner.
Refinitiv shipping data showed the Axioma left the Caribbean island of Antigua on February 27 and spent the last three weeks crossing the Atlantic before reaching Gibraltar.
Earlier Monday, a ship with ties to Roman Abramovich, the sanctioned owner of Chelsea football club, docked in the coastal city of Bodrum in south-west Turkey. Continue reading
Reporting by Jon Nazca, additional reporting by Joan Faus; writing by Nathan Allen; Editing by Hugh Lawson