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| Italy investigating mystery owner of $700M superyacht rumored to be Putin's |
| 2022-03-10 |
| [NY Post] Italian police are investigating a mysterious $700 million superyacht moored there — amid ongoing rumors that it is owned by warmongering Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Scheherazade’s captain confirmed to the New York Times that Italian investigators boarded the 459-foot vessel in Marina di Carrara on Friday, demanding proof of ownership for what locals have long dubbed "Putin’s yacht." "They are looking hard. They are looking at every aspect," Captain Guy Bennett-Pearce told the paper amid ongoing moves to seize Russian oligarchs’ yachts. "This isn’t the local coppers coming down, these are men in dark suits," said the British national, using a UK term for police officers. Bennett-Pearce refused to reveal the identity of the owner of the yacht, whose crew was at least 70 percent Russian, he said. But he said he had "no choice" but to this week hand over documents revealing the owner’s identity to the investigating squad, which a source told the Times was led by Italian financial police. One of the most expensive yachts in the world, Scheherazade has a swimming pool that converts to a dance floor, gold-plated fixtures, two helicopter decks and numerous satellite domes, the report said. "Scheherazade" is the title of a symphonic work by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and each of the last two summers the yacht has sailed to Sochi, the Times said of the Russian city where Putin is rumored to own a personal "palace." "Everybody calls it Putin’s yacht," one local, retired clerk Ernesto Rossi, told the Times. "It’s a rumor that’s been going around for months." It's Putin's, though the paperwork owner is one of his pet oligarchs. The lies, affairs and greed that made Putin the ’world’s richest man’ Now second richest. Elon Musk recently surpassed Putin and Putin's portfolio has taken a sudden dive. [NYPost] Putin officially draws a salary of between $115,000 and $225,000 a year as Russia’s head of state. But, in reality, he has amassed incalculable wealth, ranging from $100 billion to $200 billion, making him one of the world’s richest leaders and possibly wealthier than Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates or Elon Musk. Bill Brody, an American financier who ran one of the biggest investment firms in Russia from 1996 to 2005, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2017 that Putin had "accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains." The fortune of the Russian spymaster is stashed away, however, in offshore tax havens, invested in luxury properties inside and outside Russia, and spread out among the accounts of his family members and trusted friends who hold millions and billions of dollars for their boss. |
| Posted by:Angaiper Ulavins1210 |
| #3 Someday Putin might need that money. I hear the retirement plan for dictators kinda sucks. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2022-03-10 12:35 |
| #2 Scheherazade has a swimming pool that converts to a dance floor, Somebody's been watching 'It's a Wonderful Life.' |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2022-03-10 09:49 |
| #1 The lies, affairs and greed that made Putin the ’world’s richest man’ Took a page from our Congress. The fortune of the Russian spymaster is stashed away, however, in offshore tax havens, invested in luxury properties inside and outside Russia, and spread out among the accounts of his family members and trusted friends who hold millions and billions of dollars for their boss. But, what if the Communists come back into power? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-03-10 07:51 |