One $325 million superyacht US officials say the Russian oligarch, owned by Suleiman Kerimov, was on his way from Fiji to the United States on Tuesday after that island nation’s high court allowed its seizure.
Amadeya, a 350-foot yacht with a helipad, swimming pool and lobster tank, had been the subject of a week-long dispute over its ownership after the US Justice Department tried to take it over in Lutoka, Fiji in early May.
The seizure attempt was part of the DOJ’s “kleptocapture” campaign to punish Russian billionaires in response to their country. invasion of ukraineand the latest in a series of similar actions by others Western countries are targeting Russian luxury yachts.
Kerimov was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for allegedly profiting from the Russian government through corruption in 2018 and the illegal annexation of Crimea to Ukraine in 2014.
Eight-cabin Amadea left Fiji a day later A federal judge in New York signed a warrant Authorizing the DOJ to seize two jets owned by another Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich, totaling more than $400 million.
“The United States is deeply grateful to the Fiji Police and Prosecutors, whose perseverance and dedication to the rule of law have made this action possible,” DOJ spokesman Anthony Colley wrote in a tweet. flag.
The yacht was towed away from Fiji within hours of the country’s Supreme Court order that the public interest demanded that the ship “get out of Fiji’s waters”, as the cost of berthing there was “expensive to the Fiji government”. ” was. The decision was reported by Reuters.
The decision stated that Amadea “sailed Fiji waters without a permit and possibly to avoid prosecution by the United States.”
According to the FBI, Amadia’s operating costs range between $25 million and $30 million annually. The government of Fiji was paying those costs during the legal battle over the seizure.
The yacht is registered with Millmarin Investments, which argued that Kerimov did not own the ship and opposed the seizure in a Fijian court.
Milmarin’s lawyer, Feizal Hanif, claimed that the yacht’s real owner was another Russian, Eduard Khudainatov, a former CEO of state-controlled oil and gas company Rosneft. Khudnetov is not a target of sanctions by the US or the European Union.
Hanif also argued that the US did not have the right to seize the ship in Fiji until the question of ownership could be resolved by a court.
Khudainatov is also listed in the documents as the owner of another superyacht, Scheherazade, which is worth $700 million. Scheherazade has been linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, like Kerimov, is the target of US sanctions.
The Italian government seized Scheherazade in the port of Marina di Carrara last month.
The FBI said in a court filing that the fact that Khudianatov is “listed as the owner of the two largest superyachts on record, both linked to approved individuals, suggests that Khudianatov has a clean, non-residential facility.” -Residential basis.” – Being used as the owner of the approved straw. True beneficial owner. ,
Last month, when the US first tried to seize Amadia, deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco wrote that she had previously “warned that the department was looking at every yacht purchased with dirty money.”
“This ferry seizure must tell every corrupt Russian oligarch that they cannot hide even in the farthest part of the world,” Monaco wrote.
“We will use all means to enforce sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war in Ukraine.”