French customs have seized the yacht belonging to a Russian Oligarch Igor Sechin, AFP reports.
According to reports, the yacht Amore Vero belonging to Russian Oligarch Igor Sechin, who is the Boss of Rosneft and a former KGB agent and Russian deputy prime minister, the closest Putin cronies, was seized by the French customs on Wednesday night to Thursday at the La Ciotat shipyard in the Bouches-du-Rhône.
“We thank the customs for this seizure carried out within the framework of the implementation of the sanctions of the European Union against Russia”, writes the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Mair , on his Twitter account.
A “breach” of the customs code
Arrived on January 3 in La Ciotat, the yacht was to remain there until April 1 “to carry out repairs”, indicates the press release from the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Recovery. However, during the check, customs found that the “ship was making arrangements to sail urgently, without having completed the planned work”.
This attempt to leave constituted “an infraction” of the customs code, which subsequently decided to seize the ship, the report by AFP stated.