Tango (Fanta) was seized by the FBI in Palma two years ago.

Tango (Fanta) was seized by the FBI in Palma two years ago. | Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter

Humphrey CarterVictor MalagonPalma08/07/2024 09:25
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The FBI is offering a reward of one million dollars to anyone who gives information about Vladislav Osipov, apparently responsible for hiding the Tango yacht, blocked in Mallorca for more than two years due to U.S. sanctions against its owner, Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. The federal agency has issued a warning about Osipov in a poster on its social media platforms: “He has ties or he can visit Mallorca”. They are also hunting for him in Switzerland and Russia.

He is charged with bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States. The reward is signed by the Minneapolis office. Osipov, according to the FBI is a close associate of Vekselberg. The role attributed to him is to be the creator of a scheme of companies to keep Tango operational despite the yacht being targeted by U.S. sanctions since 2014 in Palma, in the first package of asset blockades of oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

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Federal authorities claim that Osipov provided Tango with a corporate structure to hide the fact that the owner was Vekselberg and to be able to divert funds even through US banking entities.
He even changed the name of the vessel from Tango to Fanta to circumvent controls.

The case, conducted by a federal court in Columbia, is at an impasse: at the beginning of last year a businessman based in Mallorca was arrested for similar acts, but the Audiencia Nacional (high court) refused to extradite him to the United States, considering that the conduct attributed to him was not a crime in Spain.

After the extradition failed, the Columbia court decided to drop the charges against the British businessman. The other suspect linked to the yacht and the maneuvers so that it did not fall into American hands is Osipov, who has Swiss nationality, as well as Russian.