UK to auction off Russian oligarch’s confiscated yacht

The Gibraltar authorities will sell the yacht Axioma at auction, presumably owned by Russia-based business billionaire Dmitriy Pumpyanskiy.

The earnings from the auction, which is scheduled for August 23, will not be transferred to help refugees in Ukraine, as the UK and several other countries call for, but to the US JPMorgan bank, according to The Guardian.

The Gibraltar Port Authority arrested the 72.5 metre-long vessel in March following Western sanctions on Pumpyanskiy. The British Overseas Territory Supreme Court ordered the yacht, worth about 65 million euros ($77 million), to be put up for auction.

As reported, the yacht was detained at the request of JPMorgan, which, in turn, claims that Pyrene Investments, owned by a Russian entrepreneur, owes the bank $20 million in funds. Allegedly, the bank is not entitled to accept payments from a person who fell under the sanctions, so the terms of the loan are considered violated.