WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has imposed sanctions on a yacht management company and its owners, describing them as part of a corrupt system that allows Russian elites and President Vladimir V. Putin to enrich themselves, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.
Imperial Yachts, based in Monaco and controlled by Moscow-born Evgeniy Kochman, focuses on Russian oligarchs. The Treasury Department said Mr Kochman and his company provide hunting-related services to “Russia’s elites, including those in President Putin’s inner circle.” Imperial Yachts, Treasury said, does business with at least one sanctioned person.
Treasury also identified four yachts linked to Mr Putin: the Shellest, the Nega, the Graceful and the Olympia. The department said Mr Putin used the Nega for travel in northern Russia, and the Shellest regularly travels to his Black Sea palace. The Treasury action did not name the 459-foot Scheherazade, a vessel associated with Imperial Yachts that US intelligence officials say was built for Mr. Putin’s use.
“Russian elites, up to and including President Putin, rely on complex support networks to hide, move and preserve their wealth and luxury assets,” said Brian Nelson, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department.
“We will continue to enforce our sanctions and expose the corrupt systems through which President Putin and his elites enrich themselves,” he said.
The ministry also announced sanctions against four Russian government officials and Yury Slyusar, the president of a Russian state-owned company that supplies aircraft to the Russian military.
The Foreign Ministry separately imposed sanctions on Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian foreign minister, and Alexei Mordashov, a Russian billionaire. The Commerce Ministry announced it is adding 71 organizations to its list of entities in an effort to block the Russian military from importing key technology.
Sergei Roldugin, a Russian cellist and longtime friend of Mr Putin’s, has also been placed under sanctions, described by the Treasury Department as “a custodian of President Putin’s offshore wealth”. Mr Roldugin was added to the European Union’s sanctions list at the end of February, a few days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He has been described as “Putin’s wallet”.
Kochman and Imperial Yachts took center stage in a DailyExpertNews investigation that found the company was at the heart of what is essentially an oligarch-industrial complex, a network of companies including German shipbuilders, French designers, Italian high-end carpenters and Spanish marinas serving Russian oligarchs and employing thousands of skilled workers.
According to a US intelligence assessment, a group of investors led by one of Russia’s richest men, Gennady Timchenko, who has been under sanctions since 2014, provided the money to Imperial Yachts to buy three ships: the Scheherazade, the Crescent and the Amadea. Their combined cost of as much as $1.6 billion could have bought six new frigates for the Russian Navy.
An Imperial Yachts attorney, Simon Clark, denied the company had any connection with Mr Timchenko, saying it “has never done business or provided services to parties subject to international sanctions.”
But Treasury officials disputed that claim in their announcement on Thursday.