the oligarch whose yacht tango was seized by the spanish and the us authorities. maybe it s a real faberge egg, maybe it s not a real faberge egg. time will tell. while so far the eu commission says they ve frozen $17 billion worth of russian assets, the united states can use more powerful, invasive laws. we have a more aggressive forfeiture system that goes beyond simply freezing an asset in place, but it takes those assets and makes them the property of the united states. but before they can do that, there s one more major hurdle. ultimately, we have to prove in court that suleiman kerimov is the owner of this boat and that the boat itself represents the proceeds of a sanctions violation on his behalf. and that is no easy task. identifying ownership of yachts
is linked to kerimov. i felt vindicated that our facts and our legal arguments were correct, but that s really the beginning of a process here in the united states, it s not the end. the us s ultimate goal is to sell the vessel and send the proceeds to ukraine. at the end of the day, we may have the ability to forfeit even the things that are on the yacht. what you find when you go onto these yachts often are showpieces that are designed to display their wealth. one of the objects that we re looking at appears like a faberge egg. there are a handful of authentic faberge eggs in the world, many of them are accounted for, and so the investigation of this egg and its authenticity is ongoing. with their exquisite craftsmanship, faberge eggs are highly prized by some of russia s richest men. these eggs are owned by viktor vekselberg the oligarch whose yacht tango was seized by the spanish
but with russia s invasion of ukraine, theirfairytale came to an abrupt end. western sanctions sparked a game of cat and mouse between some of the world s most powerful nations and some of russia s richest men. there was a real frenzy around the world between democracies to see who could sanction the most people the most quickly, who could sanction the biggest yacht. we got stopped because this is a big, blue, easily visible, high profile target. for the first time, the head of the us kleptocapture task force reveals how they caught a superyacht. we saw it scrambling out of waters where we would normally be able to seize it. security, security, security. ..and what was inside. one of the objects that we were looking at appears like a faberge egg. there s no place to hide.
i felt vindicated that our facts and our legal arguments were correct, but that s really the beginning of a process here in the united states, it s not the end. the us s ultimate goal is to sell the vessel and send the proceeds to ukraine. at the end of the day, we may have the ability to forfeit even the things that are on the yacht. what you find when you go onto these yachts often are showpieces that are designed to display their wealth. one of the objects that we re looking at appears like a faberge egg. there are a handful of authentic faberge eggs in the world, many of them are accounted for, and so the investigation of this egg and its authenticity is ongoing. with their exquisite craftsmanship, faberge eggs are highly prized by some of russia s richest men. these eggs are owned by viktor vekselberg