Tag Archives: oligarchs

Bloomberg News reports: Mark Zuckerberg wore a rare Swiss watch worth about $900,000 in a video explaining his company’s decision to end third-party fact checking on its social media platforms in the U.S. The Meta Platforms Inc. chairman sports a Greubel Forsey ‘Hand Made 1’ on his left wrist in the video posted to Facebook on Tuesday unveiling the policy …

Bloomberg News reports: The world’s 500 richest people got vastly richer in 2024, with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang leading the group of billionaires to a new milestone: A combined $10 trillion net worth. An indomitable rally in US technology stocks played a key role in turbocharging the trio’s wealth, as well as the fortunes of Larry Ellison, …

The New York Times reports: Mr. Musk has been using one of the cottages available for rent on Mr. Trump’s property at Mar-a-Lago, The cottage where he has been staying, named Banyan, is several hundred feet away from the main house, according to a person who knows the property. Mr. Trump has bragged to people that Mr. Musk — the …

“H-1B visas? That’s not what it’s about. It’s about taking American jobs and bringing over essentially what have become indentured servants at lower wages. This thing’s a scam by the oligarchs in Silicon Valley to basically take jobs from American citizens, give them to what become indentured servants from foreign countries, and then pay ‘em less. Simple. To let them …

Billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy writes on X: The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have …

The Daily Mail reports: Three sources told DailyMail.com they had been made aware of the Bezos wedding taking place on December 28. One well-connected member of the Aspen community said that the Amazon founder arrived with his entourage on a private jet into the city’s airport on Saturday. The rumor in town – as yet unconfirmed – is that Bezos …

Axios reports: Trump will nominate billionaire Howard Lutnick as Commerce secretary, a top transition source tells Axios. The Commerce Department will have a key role in implementing the tariffs Trump has vowed to implement — and Lutnick has been a vocal supporter. Lutnick, co-chair of Trump’s transition, was hoping to become Treasury secretary, but Trump recently soured on the finalists …

Ars Technica reports: Elon Musk’s X updated its terms of service to steer user lawsuits to US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, the same court where a judge who bought Tesla stock is overseeing an X lawsuit against the nonprofit Media Matters for America. The new terms that apply to users of the X social network say …

Yahoo News reports: Russian real estate tycoon Dmitry Zelenov passed away earlier this month after tumbling down a flight of stairs while visiting friends in the French Riviera, according to a local outlet and an independent Russian outlet. The 50-year-old was the former owner of Russian developer Don-Stroy, which constructed the 61-story Triumph Palace Tower in Moscow, one of the …

The Guardian reports: A $200m (£163m) superyacht owned by Viktor Medvedchuk, an oligarch and friend of Vladimir Putin who is under sanctions, is to be sold at auction after its seizure in Croatia earlier this year. The Ukrainian government said a Croatian court had ruled that Medvedchuk’s 92.5-metre Royal Romance yacht should be transferred to the Ukrainian Asset Recovery and …

CNN reports: US law enforcement officials recovered what appeared to be a Fabergé egg from a yacht seized from a Russian oligarch in Fiji, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Wednesday. The $300 million yacht, owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, was sailed by US law enforcement officials from Fiji to the San Diego Bay late last month, where …

The Guardian reports: Palaces, yachts and vineyards reportedly provided to Vladimir Putin by friends and oligarchs can now be linked to what appears to be an informal network holding assets worth more than $4.5bn (£3.7bn). A digital paper trail appears to suggest that an array of holiday homes and other assets reportedly used by the Russian president, which according to …

Bloomberg News reports: Fiji’s High Court has given the green light for U.S. and local authorities to seize a $325 million megayacht whose ownership is in dispute, setting the stage for a legal showdown to determine whether the luxury vessel’s owner is sanctioned Russian gold billionaire Suleiman Kerimov as the U.S. claims. The Suva High Court on Monday granted the …

The Associated Press reports: The U.S. government seized a mega yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to the Russian president on Monday, the first in the government’s sanctions enforcement initiative to “seize and freeze” giant boats and other pricey assets of Russian elites. Spain’s Civil Guard and U.S. federal agents descended on the yacht at the …

Reuters reports: Britain has detained a Russian-owned $50 million superyacht hours before it was due to leave London where it had docked for a meeting of the superyacht awards, saying the move was part of its sanctions package aimed at punishing Moscow. The 58.5 metre Dutch-built yacht, named Phi, was detained in the Canary Wharf financial district of London under …

The Helsinki Times reports: Finnish Customs has placed a total of 21 yachts under a transfer ban on grounds of suspicion that they are owned by oligarchs or other individuals falling within the sanctions regime of the EU, Sami Rakshit, the head of the enforcement department at Finnish Customs, confirmed to YLE on Monday. Rakshit told YLE that customs officials …

Reuters reports: A luxurious super-yacht linked to the owner of Russia’s largest steel pipe maker, who is currently under British and European Union sanctions, docked in Gibraltar on Monday and was then detained by the authorities. Western sanctions on Russian oligarchs over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine have triggered an exodus of luxury yachts from Europe in recent weeks, with several …

Politico reports: The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last week quietly renamed its “Russian Lounge” — a room featuring the country’s art and culture paid for by one of its richest men, Vladimir Potanin — amid a backlash against Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. In 2011, Potanin [photo] donated $5 million to the Kennedy Center. He paid to …

Reuters reports: Italian police have seized a superyacht owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, the prime minister’s office said on Saturday, a few days after the businessman was placed on an EU sanctions list following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The 143-metre (470-foot) Sailing Yacht A, which has a price tag of 530 million euros ($578 million), has been sequestered …

The Daily Beast reports: It’s a 230-foot superyacht with room for 28 guests and crew—and yet, in the last week, it has seemingly vanished, just as other vessels belonging to Russian billionaires have been frozen or seized. The Galactica Super Nova, owned by Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov, sailed in recent weeks from Barcelona to Tivat, Montenegro, arriving on March 1. …