Taxpayers Stuck Paying the Bills for Oligarchs’ Seized Yachts and Mansions
FALMOUTH HARBOUR, Antigua and Barbuda—Two dozen armed police and five FBI agents fanned out across the harbor here early one morning last year. They raided the Alfa Nero, a 270-foot megayacht believed to be owned by Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, a Russian phosphates magnate sanctioned by the U.S. for links to President Vladimir Putin.
Ever since, the $120 million yacht—nearly the length of a football field and outfitted with an infinity pool that transforms into a dance floor—has sat idle in this sleepy harbor. It’s a floating reminder of the West’s economic war against Russia and the difficulties in managing and offloading billions in seized Russian assets. It has also become a nightmare for this tiny country of 93,000.
Taxpayers of this cash-strapped nation are currently paying $28,000 a week to maintain the stationary boat, including the salary of an Italian captain and $2,000 a day in diesel to keep its air conditioning running. If it turns off, mold will spread through the vessel within 48 hours, potentially damaging its hardwood interior and the Miro painting on board. A skeleton crew of six—having eaten through the boat’s supply of Champagne, lobsters and caviar—toils to ensure the vessel can one day be sailed away.
“You take thousand dollar bills, tear them up, and just keep going," said Tom Paterson, the dock master of the marina, making a ripping up motion with his hands in the marina offices. Since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, dozens of governments launched an unprecedented effort to pressure Putin to end the war by going after his well-heeled cronies. The Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs Task Force, a multinational government group that coordinates on sanctions, reported in March that an estimated
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