US authorities have won a legal battle to seize a $325m (£258m) superyacht docked in Fiji that they claim is beneficially owned by one of Russia’s richest men, the sanctioned oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
US officials have been battling for control and seizure of the 106-metre vessel, which features a helipad, Jacuzzi, lobster tank and sundeck managed by up to 36 crew, after claiming in court filings that the vessel was controlled by a “straw owner” meant to obscure the true beneficiary of the vessel.
Lawyers for the British Virgin Islands company which is registered as the corporate owner of the yacht, known as the Amadea, have denied Kerimov was linked to the vessel, and claimed instead that it belongs to a Russian businessman, the former Rosneft boss turned private oil tycoon Eduard Khudainatov.
The European Union issued sanctions against Khudainatov last Friday, citing his ties to president Vladimir Putin and former deputy prime minister, Igor Sechin. However, the EU sanctions decision did not refer to his ownership of the Amadea, or a separate $700m vessel recently seized by Italian authorities that some reports claim is linked to the businessman. Khudainatov has not personally commented on the ownership of either vessel.
The legal wrangling began shortly after the Amadea arrived in Fiji waters on 13 April, following an 18-day journey from Mexico. Fiji’s supreme court said in its judgment that the vessel sailed into Fiji water without a permit, “most probably to evade prosecution by the United States”.
The court ruled it was in the public interest that the yacht “sail out of Fiji waters”, because having it docked in there was “costing the Fijian government dearly”.
The Fiji government had been covering the costs of maintaining the vessel – which according to some estimates runs up to $1.1m each month – while the appeal by the vessel’s registered owner, Millemarin Investments, wound its way through the courts.
Neither Kerimov nor Khudainatov could be reached for comment.
