Kazakh-Israeli Industrialist Avoids ‘Sex Yacht’ Arrest
Alexsander Mashkevich has escaped legal action in connection with the Turkish sex yacht incident late last month, according to this JTA article.
According to this article, Turkish authorities followed the yacht for months before boarding it late last month. “Thirteen girls, including two minors, from Russia and Ukraine were detained along with several men from Central Asia.”
One of those men was Mashkevich. The industrialist holds citizenship in both his native Kazakhstan and in Israel.
According to this Israel21c article, he is the fifth-richest Israeli citizen.
Mashkevich is also, it seems, a major philanthropist, according to his bio on the website of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, a regional branch of the World Jewish Congress.
The yacht incident isn’t the industrialist’s first brush with the law. According to this JTA story,:
In 1999, Mashkevich’s name appeared in media reports in the West in connection with an international money-laundering scandal when authorities in Belgium pressed charges against him and some of his business partners. Mashkevich has denied the allegations as baseless, saying the scandal was created by some top Kazakh officials irritated by his growing influence in order to force Mashkevich leave the country. Mashkevich said only Belgian judicial formalities have prevented it from being closed. Some observers believe he is apparently trying to overcome this somewhat controversial international image by playing an increasingly active role as a Jewish leader.
According to the JTA story, the statement from the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress said that Mashkevich was on a “business cruise on a yacht with several friends and colleagues” when “the boat was routinely checked by the Coast Guard.”
Mashkevich was never implicated in wrongdoing, and claims to the contrary are “false and provocational,” the statement said.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward As Netanyahu arrives in Budapest, Hungary announces exit from International Criminal Court
-
Yiddish הונדערטער פֿרומע ייִדן לאַנצירן לינק־געשטימטע גרופּע אין מאַנהעטןHundreds of observant Jews launch left-wing group in Manhattan
הרבֿ יוסף בלאַו האָט בײַ דער קאָנפֿערענץ באַדויערט וואָס דער רעליגיעזער ציוניזם אין ישׂראל איז „פֿאַרכאַפּט געוואָרן“ פֿון די רעכטע.
-
Fast Forward Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ includes 17% tariffs on Israeli imports, even as Israel cancels tariffs on US goods
-
Fast Forward Hillel CEO says he shares ‘concerns’ over campus deportations, calls for due process
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.