shipbuilding
Illegal wood on board: Shipyard of Jeff Bezos’ luxury yacht has to pay a fine
It is said to have cost up to 500 million US dollars – the mega yacht owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Nevertheless, not everything seems to have gone smoothly.
It couldn’t possibly have been due to a lack of money: As the Dutch newspaper “” reports, shipbuilder Oceanco, which built the world’s largest sailing yacht for multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos, is said to have violated the European law against illegal wood products. Accordingly, some of the yacht’s furniture and equipment was made from raw materials from an unnamed Turkish wood processing company, the origin of which cannot be traced.
The wood is said to be teak from Myanmar. This has been criticized for a long time because the profits from the so-called bloodwood should flow directly into the coffers of the military junta, reported the “”. Sustainability is apparently not taken into account when deforestation occurs. At the beginning of last year it was said that the “natural resources in Myanmar have now been almost completely destroyed”.
From nerd to richest jetsetter in the world: Jeff Bezos’ life in pictures
Jeff Bezos was quite the nerd in the 90s. He recognized very early on that the Internet had the potential to become the world’s marketplace. He founded Amazon in 1994, and in 1995 the young company initially began shipping books. On April 3, 1995, Australian software engineer John Wainwright became Amazon’s first non-corporate customer when he ordered “Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies: Computer Models Of The Fundamental Mechanisms Of Thought” by Douglas Hofstadter.
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What’s more: teak from the Southeast Asian country is actually not allowed to enter the EU. The EU Timber Trade Regulation, which requires proof of the exact origin of the raw materials, has prohibited this for years. But despite the sanctions, the coveted wood also gets here via detours. Teak from Myanmar was even found on the sailing training ship Gorch Fock.
The “Rolls-Royce” of wood for yachts
Teak is considered the “Rolls-Royce” of woods and is popular in shipbuilding because of its high strength and elasticity. The high fiber density protects the wood from the inside and protects it from rot. This results in a comparatively low maintenance effort. The tropical wood does not dry out even in strong sunlight and remains splinter-free.
According to the journalist network “”, Oceanco has already admitted the misconduct. They “never intended” to violate the regulation and “deeply regret” that it happened. The public prosecutor sentenced the company to pay a fine of 150,000 euros.
“ICIJ” writes that teak from Myanmar still reaches the international market through intermediaries in Singapore, Thailand and other countries. Myanmar last reported $67.8 million in revenue from timber exports for the 2023-24 financial year (April 2023 to March 2024). The “” states that this is “the lowest level in the last two decades”. According to the state timber company, 3,000 tons of logs and 2,000 tons of processed wood were exported. She is considered corrupt.
Source: Stern
I’m a recent graduate of the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism. I started working as a news reporter for 24 Hours World about two years ago, and I’ve been writing articles ever since. My main focus is automotive news, but I’ve also written about politics, lifestyle, and entertainment.
