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The Hamburg Regional Court has ruled in favor of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, deeming false a Luxembourg Times article that claimed he owns the 512-foot luxury yacht Dilbar. The story was reported by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, which is owned by Usmanov.
The German court concluded that the allegation of Usmanov’s ownership of the vessel, which is valued at nearly $600 million, violated his rights. Media outlets that publish similar claims now face penalties of up to €250,000 or up to six months in jail. In response to the ruling, the Luxembourg Times has removed the contested section from its article.
On March 2, 2022, Forbes reported that the German government had seized Dilbar as part of sanctions imposed on Usmanov in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The vessel had been docked at the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg since October 2021 for refitting.
German authorities later clarified that Dilbar had not been formally seized. Instead, it was subject to export control restrictions, preventing the yacht from leaving Germany without special authorization.
In 2023, Usmanov took legal action in Germany following searches aboard the Dilbar that were conducted as part of an investigation into alleged tax evasion, money laundering, and violations of foreign trade law. Usmanov’s side argued that the raids breached his right to the inviolability of the home and infringed on his human dignity. Usmanov’s challenge ultimately succeeded on technical grounds, as the yacht is held in a trust reportedly set up by the billionaire for “estate planning purposes.”
Usmanov, whose net worth was last listed by Forbes as $16.5 billion, ultimately avoided criminal charges in the investigation, getting off with a fine of €4 million.
The billionaire, who amassed his wealth in mining, industry, telecoms, and media, was sanctioned by both the EU and the U.S. shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The EU’s official sanctions announcement described Usmanov as a “pro-Kremlin oligarch” and “one of Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs,” who has “fronted for [Putin] and solved his business problems.” He was designated for “actively supporting the Russian government’s policies of destabilisation of Ukraine.”
The billionaire has also been sanctioned by the UK, Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Japan.