The $300 million superyacht owned by Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov was seized Thursday by Fiji authorities on behalf of the United States as part of the ongoing efforts to sanction and punish Russia’s elite for the invasion of Ukraine.
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The Amadea was owned by Kerimov after he was sanctioned by the U.S., U.K. and European Union in early March, and American financial transactions were made at U.S. banking institutions by him and associates for maintenance of the superyacht, authorities say in the seizure warrant. He is among the group of Russian oligarchs who have been sanctioned during the war for profiting “from the Russian government through corruption and its malign activity around the globe,” according to the Justice Department.
“Last month, I warned that the department had its eyes on every yacht purchased with dirty money,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco wrote in a statement. “This yacht seizure should tell every corrupt Russian oligarch that they cannot hide, not even in the remotest part of the world. We will use every means of enforcing the sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war in Ukraine.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland echoed Monaco’s sentiments on Russian oligarchs, saying, “There is no hiding place for the assets of individuals who violate U.S. laws.”
“And there is no hiding place for the assets of criminals who enable the Russian regime,” he said in a statement.
Nikita Sichov, a lawyer in Cannes, France, whose firm represents Kerimov, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Feizal Haniff, an attorney representing Millemarin Investments, the company where the luxury ship is registered, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Haniff has argued in court that the Amadea’s owner is not Kerimov but Eduard Khudainatov, a former executive at Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil company, who has yet to be sanctioned, according to CBS News.
Putin allies have tried to find safe waters for their superyachts during the course of the war. In March, the French Finance Ministry announced it had seized the Amore Vero, the 281-foot-long superyacht owned by Russian oligarch Igor Sechin that’s valued at $120 million. Other yachts have been docked around the world, while others have been on the move to avoid getting seized.
As part of a sweeping, new $33 billion spending package unveiled last week that would provide military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, President Biden proposed liquidating the assets of Russian oligarchs and donating the proceeds to Ukraine. While the president’s proposal would require broad new legal powers, Biden suggested he saw a powerful symbolism in the move.
“We’re going to seize their yachts, their luxury homes and other ill-begotten gains,” he said.
The White House has not released details of the proposal, but noted it would improve the government’s ability to send seized funds to Ukraine. Under current law, the United States can typically only freeze — not seize or liquidate — the assets of sanctioned individuals. Russian officials have vowed to retaliate against the White House move and urged the affected oligarchs to take legal action.
Considerable hurdles remain when it comes to sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs. Gaping holes in wire transactions — which now reside in a database maintained by Treasury — underscore how difficult it is to locate, let alone freeze, assets connected to Kerimov and other Russian elites that have been moved into offshore accounts over the past decade.
Kerimov, 56, who was listed by Forbes as Russia’s richest man two years ago, has seen his fortune fall since then. Despite that, it still hovers around $13 billion, according to Forbes.
Built in 2017, the Amadea can accommodate 18 guests and 36 crew members, and includes a large swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a helicopter landing platform and a winter garden on the sun deck, according to Superyacht Fan, a website tracking luxury yachts.
The oligarch was first put under sanctions by the United States in 2018. Britain and the European Union followed suit last month as part of a global crackdown in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The seizure of the superyacht was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, a group dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls, and economic countermeasures imposed by the U.S. and its allies, authorities say. Sometime after the yacht was located in Lautoka, Fiji, in April, local authorities, with a “mutual legal assistance request from the United States,” obtained a domestic seizure warrant from court, according to the Justice Department.
Andrew Adams, director of Task Force KleptoCapture, celebrated the announcement in what he described as an “unprecedented, multinational series of enforcement actions against the Russian regime and its enablers.”
“This seizure of Suleiman Kerimov’s vessel, the Amadea, nearly 8,000 miles from Washington, D.C., symbolizes the reach of the Department of Justice as we continue to work with our global partners to disrupt the sense of impunity of those who have supported corruption and the suffering of so many,” Adams said in a statement.
Greg Miller, Bryan Pietsch, Missy Ryan, Jeff Stein, Matt Viser and Spencer Woodman contributed to this report.
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