Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov may be superyacht-less but has tasted a small victory after drowning in a sea of ordeals and is now in comeback mode. In May, the Frankfurt Regional Court declared the searches aboard his megayacht and properties illegal. The court found no meat in the police work and announced the initial suspicion of money laundering utterly baseless. Sanctioned oligarch Usmanov was also being investigated for tax evasion and sanctions violations.
Still, why the investigators suspected Usmanov of money laundering was not adequately described. The judges harshly criticized the investigators for basing their statements on a YouTube video by Russian opposition figure Alexej Navalny, per Spiegel. In response, the Uzbek-born tycoon filed a constitutional complaint in Germany. He felt his fundamental right to the inviolability of the home was violated, which resulted in legal action against the Munich judiciary before the Federal Constitutional Court. Moreover, Usmanov termed these raids a violation of his human dignity and also breach of the basic law of impregnability of a home. A luxurious superyacht is also a protected home and the treatment meted to the Dilbar megayacht was a clear violation of the above.
Welt threw light on a 67-page constitutional complaint that defends Usmanov against the search warrant of his luxury yacht Dilbar in the port of Bremen and villas in Bavaria on Lake Tegernsee that were foraged as part of the suspected tax evasion investigation. Clearly, he will go guns blazing after pining for his beloved megayacht Dilbar for over a year. The complaint out rightly denies supporting the Russian regime and declaring the Foreign Trade Law that Usmanov allegedly violated illegitimate.
Officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the tax investigators searched several villas on Lake Tegernsee. On 23rd September 2022 they found four fake Faberge eggs which were worth tens of thousands of dollars. They scoured an apartment near Frankfurt, and the Dilbar in the port of Bremen, where they confiscated rare artwork worth $5 million on November 8th 2022.
Now the billionaire has tasted a tiny victory and is using this opportunity to turn the tables and pin the investigators instead. Who knows, this minuscule silver lining may eventually bring the mighty megayacht Dilbar back to him.
