A $40 million yacht owned by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was damaged when a vandal untied it from its dock at a Ohio marina and set it adrift, according to a report.
The captain of the 163-foot luxury vessel SeaQuest, which was moored at the Huron Boat Basin in Lake Erie, called police early Sunday to report that he and his crew realized it had been released, the Toledo Blade reported.
The crew managed to get control of the yacht, but not before it hit the dock, causing about $5,000 to $10,000 in damage from large scratches and scrapes, Huron police told the paper.
Authorities hoped to find surveillance video showing who was behind the vandalism.
It was unclear why the SeaQuest — which can accommodate 12 guests and the same number of crew members — was in Huron.
DeVos, one of the wealthiest members of the Trump administration, was in northwest Ohio earlier this month to tour the Penta Career Center and the Lucas County Correctional Treatment Facility.
She and her husband, former Amway CEO Dick DeVos, are worth a reported $1.3 billion.
The SeaQuest is one of 10 vessels owned by the DeVos family. It is registered to RDV International Marine Ltd., the Blade reported, citing a US Customs and Border Protection database.
That company is at the same location as the RDV Corp., which manages the family’s wealth.
It has not been smooth sailing for Betsy DeVos as education secretary.
As a major funder of the “school choice” movement, she has been assailed by public school advocates.
And she was roundly criticized for a recent interview on “60 Minutes” in which she said she has not “intentionally” visited underperforming schools in her home state of Michigan.
When interviewer Lesley Stahl suggested that DeVos should visit more challenging schools, DeVos replied: “Maybe I should.”
In January 2017, DeVos said during her confirmation hearing that elementary school teachers in Wapiti, a small Wyoming community near Cody where her family owns land, might already be armed against grizzly bears.
They were not.
