Russian billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov next to an image of a Mercedes-Benz Maybach S650.Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images/Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
A Mercedes Maybach owned by Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov has been seized in Italy, Corriere della Sera reported.
The $670,000 vehicle can protect against bullets and explosives, according to the report.
Police have also seized a property and six company cars in Sardinia, Italy, according to l’Unione Sarda.
Italy has seized a $670,000 bulletproof luxury sedan that belonged to a sanctioned Russian oligarch, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera first reported on Tuesday.
A black Mercedes Maybach S650 VR10 owned by mining and telecoms magnate Alisher Usmanov has been seized by authorities in Sardinia, an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea, in recent days, according to Corriere, who was quoted in media reports.
Italian tax police confirmed to the Times on Tuesday that the car was among a number of Usmanov’s assets on the island that were confiscated. Italian local newspaper L’Unione Sarda also reported Tuesday that authorities had confiscated his €17 million Gulf of Pevero property complex and six of his company vehicles. All his confiscated assets in Sardinia total 66 million euros ($73.4 million) per l’Unione Sarda.
Authorities in Sardinia and Usmanov’s representatives did not immediately respond to insider requests for comment on the reported seizures.
Worth around 600,000 euros, the five-ton Maybach is equipped with armor and 10-centimetre-thick windows that can withstand blasts and machine gun attacks, Corriere reported. It can survive two shells exploding at the same time, Mercedes said, according to the Times report.
Mercedes did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on the vehicle’s details.
Usmanov was sanctioned by the European Union on February 28 for having “particularly close ties” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and, according to a report by the EU Council, is considered one of his “favorite oligarchs”.
The story goes on
The billionaire, who has also been hit by UK and US sanctions, previously placed some of his assets, including two villas in the UK, in irrevocable trusts and no longer owns them, his spokesman told The Guardian.
Usmanov is the fifth richest person in Russia, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, with a net worth of $18.7 billion.
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