A luxury yacht owned by a Russian oligarch that was supposedly seized under EU sanctions mysteriously disappeared from a port on the Italian island of Sardinia this summer. The 72-foot Aldabra is owned by Dmitry Mazepin, the billionaire owner of a mineral fertilizer company and father of the former Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin. The vessel, said to be worth around €700,000 was docked at Olbia port and seized in March when Mazepin was named on the sanctions list in the weeks following the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It remained there until June, when the yacht disappeared hours before it was officially confirmed as belonging to Mazepin. “Mazepin knew he was on the list but managed to make the most of the period during which we were working to establish that the boat belonged to him, as we had to investigate the chain of ownership,” said a source at Sardinia’s financial police squad. “We were in the process of confirming [the ownership] when it was taken away.” Police said Mazepin hired a foreign company, which in turn hired a Sardinian captain to move the yacht away from Italy. An investigation led by Carlo Lazzari, group commander at Olbia’s finance police, found the yacht made a stopover at the small port of Biserta in Tunisia, but its current whereabouts is unknown. 

Uno yacht di lusso di proprietà di Dmitry Mazepin è misteriosamente scomparso dalla Sardegna la scorsa estate. Mazepin è un miliardario e fa parte dell'oligarchia russa. È diventato un miliardario grazie alla sua azienda di fertilizzanti. È anche il padre di Nikita Mazepin, famoso pilota di Formula 1. Lo yacht è stato sequestrato durante la sanzione europea. Chiamato Aldabra, è lungo 22 metri e vale almeno 700.000 euro. Lo yacht era attraccato a Olbia all'inizio della sanzione quando la Russia ha invaso l'Ucraina. È scomparso per la prima volta durante l'estate quando Mazepin ha assunto un capitano sardo per spostarlo. Dopo alcune indagini della polizia italiana, sotto la supervisione di Carlo Lazzari, è stato ritrovato nel porto di Biserta in Tunisia. Per la seconda volta lo yacht è scomparso di nuovo e nessuno riesce a trovarne la posizione.