PROPERTY SEARCH
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ARCHIVED - Brit arrested in Spain for helping Russian tycoon conceal 90-million-euro megayacht
The UK national has been detained at Madrid airport for his part in preventing the yacht from being seized by US investigators
Spanish police and FBI search the yacht in Palma de Mallorca last April
The Guardia Civil police in Spain have arrested a British citizen at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport for allegedly being the ringleader of a business network that tried to hide Russian assets.
Richard Masters, CEO of Master Yachts in Mallorca for over 23 years, is suspected of concealing the Russian yacht ‘Tango’ under a false name in order to avoid having it seized under the sanctions against Russia due to the Ukraine invasion.
Investigators believe he was being paid by the Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselberg to hide the yacht, which is 78 metres long and valued at around 90 million euros, so that it wouldn’t be seized.
They estimate that his company earned more than 800,000 euros for the management of the yacht ‘Tango’, which was searched in in Palma de Mallorca in April of last year by agents of the Guardia Civil, the FBI and the Homeland Security Investigations of the USA.
At that time, documentation was seized that has now led to the arrest of UK national Masters at Madrid airport, at the request of US authorities. He is accused of fraud and money laundering on behalf of a Russian citizen and the owner of a Russian business conglomerate with interests in the oil, energy and telecommunications sectors, according to the Guardia Civil.His company, Master Yachts, is a commercial company based in Spain’s Palma de Mallorca which takes care of the maintenance and provision of administrative services for luxury sailing vessels.
Among his clients and vessels managed was a yacht owned by a Russian citizen who is banned from operating in US markets and with US financial and commercial entities.
According to the Guardia Civil, the company provided services aimed at satisfying the personal needs of the owner and users of the yacht with knowledge of the existence of the existing sanctions and prohibitions on this person.
To circumvent the sanctions, Masters gave the yacht a pseudonym in all documentation so as not to arouse suspicion. In this way, he provided goods and services to the yacht itself, its owner and its users worth more than 485,000 US dollars, according to US authorities.
The detainee and his company also made considerable profits by approving and coordinating the yacht’s annual operating budget, a large part of which was earmarked for fees paid to the yacht’s own management company.
When the yacht was searched back in April of last year, it was said to be flying a Cook Islands flag and was registered in the name of a company based in the British Virgin Islands, which in turn is administered by companies in Panama, all following a complex financial and corporate scheme to conceal the true ownership of the yacht.
Images: Guardia Civil
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