If Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov thought that Italian sanctions against his property and stemming from his alleged ties to the Russian government were going to stop with his 215-foot, $71 million yacht Lady M, he was sadly mistaken.
Lady M was seized weeks ago, and now a residential complex estimated to be worth some $116 million has also been seized. According to Italian police, the complex is located in the coastal town of Portisco on the Emerald Coast of Sardinia.
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It's all part of a wave of sanctions imposed by Italy and other countries against Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine. Many ultra-wealthy Russians have expensive property and assets outside the country, and now much of it is subject to various international sanctions. Italy has been especially vigilant on this front, with sanctioned Russian assets seized by authorities in Sardinia, on the shores of Lake Como, and in Tuscany.
For his part, Mordashov denies any links with Putin. In early March, he gave a statement to Russian news agency TASS to that effect:
"I have absolutely nothing to do with the emergence of the current geopolitical tension and I do not understand why the EU has imposed sanctions on me."
Mordashov is one of the richest people in Russia, and confiscation of property in Italy isn't the last of his current problems. In Germany, he's reportedly being investigated for a $1.5 billion transfer of shares in a travel company called TUI, much of which went to another company located on an off-shore tax shelter and apparently controlled by his wife. The transfer happened on the same day Mordashov and several other Russian oligarchs were hit by sanctions from the European Union.
