The russian oligarch condemned the confiscated yacht

On Wednesday, a French court ordered the country’s customs department to release an arrested yacht belonging to a russian billionaire.

Customs officials seized the 27-meter “La Petite Ourse” on March 16 — after its owner Oleksiy Kuzmichev, one of the main shareholders of russia’s Alfa Bank, came under EU sanctions for his ties to vladimir putin, Reuters writes.

Kuzmichev sued the French authorities in an attempt to regain access to his two yachts in France, La Petite Ourse and La Petite Ourse II.

The confiscated vessel had to be returned allegedly due to “procedural errors” committed during the arrest of the vessel, which was moored in the city of Antibes on the Cote d’Azur. The court also ordered the French customs to pay the oligarch 10,000 euros in compensation. Such a decision clearly indicates the problems faced by European countries when freezing the assets of russian oligarchs.

Kuzmichev is still prohibited from taking La Petite Ourse out of French territorial waters, but he can now access and use the yacht in French waters, his lawyer said.

The court did not consider the lawsuit regarding the russian’s second yacht, La Petite Ourse II, which was confiscated in Cannes. This case will go to Rouen’s Court of Appeal. The terms of consideration have not been named.