The owner of the tanker seized by the US is a businessman from occupied Crimea, — media

The owner of the tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1), which was seized by the United States, turned out to be a businessman from the annexed Crimea.

This was reported by “Novaya Gazeta Europa”, citing data from the Global Integrated Shipping Information System of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of the Russian Federation.

Thus, the tanker Marinera seized by the United States belongs to the Russian company Burevestmarin. Its director and sole owner is an entrepreneur from the annexed Crimea, Ilya Bugai.

His company was registered in Ryazan only six months ago. However, it seems that it really was engaged in maritime transportation. On job search sites, you can find several vacancies of the company related to shipping published in 2025.

Since 2018, Bugai has also held the position of CEO of the company Rusneftekhimtorg, which is engaged in the trade of petroleum products. In 2020, the company earned 4 billion rubles, then revenue fell sharply, and in 2024 (the latest available data) the company suffered losses.

Earlier, USM reported that the US had seized a tanker linked to Venezuela, which had changed its flag to Russian. The US is currently preparing to charge the ship’s crew.