THE captain of a superyacht said prostitution and drug parties were commonplace and normal laws didn’t seem to apply to owners.
The sailor – who cannot be named for legal reasons – said weekly food orders costing over £33,000 were flown in from Paris and cleanups the following morning to remove any traces of party drugs.
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Speaking to The Guardian, the man said wealthy landlords, especially Russian oligarchs, like to hide their wealth behind “a mess of shell companies” in the tax havens of the Marshall Islands or the Cayman Islands.
It comes as Western powers seize a number of mega yachts owned by oligarchs close to the Kremlin.
Igor Sechin, who heads Russian oil conglomerate Rosneft, had what is believed to be his massive £450million mega yacht seized by Spanish authorities in March.
Russia’s richest man, Alexei Mordashov, also had his £45million ship seized by Italian cops as Europe scoured his list of targets.
And authorities in southern Europe have also raided a luxury ship named Scheherazade amid suspicions it belongs to Vladimir Putin.
“They are operated in a top-secret manner so they can use them and distract from the property,” said the captain, who asked to remain anonymous due to confidentiality agreements he signed with d former employers.
Some of these non-disclosure agreements, seen by The Guardian, must be signed before a job interview and often prevent employees from sharing the identity of their owners online.
Posting pictures online or even taking drawings of the boat is a no-no and could get you fired.
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A contract states that employees must consent to undergo polygraph lie detector tests if necessary.
He says it’s because normal laws don’t apply to these floating mega-mansions.
Employees must also carry out deep cleanings to remove any traces of drugs such as cocaine, especially when the yacht is moving from one European territory to another and where customs officers may carry out spot checks.
The anonymous captain – who claims to have sailed on numerous super yachts across the Caribbean and the Mediterranean – also claimed that prostitution was an open secret, with women being regularly transported on boats.
The industry is “very sexist, ageist and racist”, he said, pointing to the fact that few boats have non-white crews and that female employees are generally required to send a full profile picture in their candidacies.
He said friends and a former colleague had spoken of female crew members being forced to undergo regular testing for sexually transmitted diseases while on some ships sex was traded for luxury watches.
“It’s the norm in the industry. Owners want to meet flight attendants. It’s pretty crazy and disgusting,” he said.
But with staff able to earn up to £3,800 a month, mostly tax-free, it’s no wonder workers continue to crawl.
According to the publication, heads of some of the biggest yachts can earn up to £34,000 a month.
“Billionaires are their toy,” said the captain. “Money is just a number to them at the end of the day. They’ll pay crazy amounts of money just to make it work.”
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