On March 2, which feels like two years ago even though it was… checks notes… 43 DAYS ago, we reported that an $800 million yacht called “Dilbar” had been seized by German authorities.

We followed an initial report, published by Forbes, in stating that Dilbar had been seized by German authorities operating out of Hamburg where the vessel was being maintained at the shipyard of shipbuilder Blohm + Voss. Unfortunately, within a few hours of publishing, we had to go back and edit/clarify/correct some of the article’s primary assertions after two events:

First, representatives working for the yachts owner, Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, denied that the yacht had been seized. Secondly, later in the same day, Usmanov’s denials were backed-up by a statement released by Germany’s Ministry of Economy, a statement that made it clear that the German government had not seized Dilbar.

Fast forward a few weeks to the present now Dilbar has indeed officially been seized by the German government.

And I don’t think we’ll have to issue a retraction in a few hours because this time it’s not a rumor or unconfirmed reporting. This time, Germany’s Federal Police, known by their abbreviation “BKA,” confirmed Dilbar’s seizure. The BKA confirmed the seizure in multi-part Twitter thread which stated (paraphrased, using Google translate):

“The BKA has determined through extensive investigations that, despite offshore concealment, the owner of the yacht “Dilbar” is Gulbakhor Ismailova, Alisher…