France sells seized superyacht for €10 million
The 41-metre boat, Stefania, went under the hammer at the shipyards of La Ciotat, a town located to the east of the southern port city of Marseille.
The vessel, built in 2021, was estimated at between €10 and €12 million but in the end fetched only the starting price of €10 million.
The Stefania, which features an Art Deco interior, can accommodate a maximum of 10 guests and up to six crew. It has a pool, a jacuzzi and a wood-burning fireplace.
"Many of the details, such as glass inlaid railings and a transparent flagpole, have never been seen on a yacht before," according to De Baecque, the firm conducting the auction.
The superyacht had been seized in 2023 during a stopover near Genoa in northwestern Italy at the request of French authorities.
French police had been investigating "criminal activities" of Belarusian and Ukrainian nationals, according to the Marseille public prosecutor's office.
A probe had been launched into "arms trafficking, drug trafficking and money laundering by an organised gang", it added.
Belarusian national Chaslau Koniukh has been identified by French authorities as the owner of the yacht as well as of a villa on the French Riviera.
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An analysis of "front companies and suspicious movements of funds from tax havens confirmed a desire to conceal the fraudulent origin of the funds used to purchase a sumptuous villa" in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, and the superyacht, according to prosecutors.
In May 2023, the villa east of Nice, worth an estimated €10 million, was placed under judicial control.
In October that year, the yacht, which flew the flag of the Cayman Islands and with a market value of €16.5 million at the time, was spotted in Italy before being seized.
Another superyacht was seized at the shipyard at La Ciotat in 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The French government says the 86-metre vessel, Amore Vero, is linked to Igor Sechin, chief executive of Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft and close ally of President Vladimir Putin.
An investigation is still ongoing.
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