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Motion to sell arrested yacht denied by judge

The motion to sell the arrested 'Amadea' has been denied by US district judge Dale Ho. On Feb 9, 2024, federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed a statement urging the judge to press ahead with an auction amid excessive carrying costs, estimated at $743,750 a month. The argument has now been rejected by the court: "The court is wary of relying solely on maintenance costs to justify sale, when those costs represent a small fraction of the value of the res and do not appear to be atypical for property of this type." The 'Amadea' was arrested in May 2022 after its UBO (ultimate beneficiary owner) was allegedly sanctioned following the start of the Russian war against Ukraine. US authorities detained the vessel and subsequently moved it from Fiji to San Diego, where she remains to date. In October 2023, the DOJ filed a civil forfeiture complaint which could allow the US government to take ownership of the 'Amadea'. The complaint alleged that maintenance and other works were carried out in violation of US law, including allegations of money laundering. The filing was submitted in federal court in New York and further alleged the existence of "a chain of shell companies designed to conceal the identity of the true owner of the yacht" in corporate documents. "The burden to prove forfeitability in a civil forfeiture proceeding is upon the government, and proceedings involving this property and its claimants remain ongoing. The yacht could therefore be 'subject to forfeiture to the United States. A civil forfeiture complaint is merely an allegation that money or property was involved in or represents the proceeds of a crime".

Excessive maintenance bill justifies auction of seized oligarch yacht

The U.S. government is spending more than $7 million a year to maintain the 'Amadea' which it seized from a Russian oligarch in 2022 and urged a judge to let it auction the vessel. Authorities in Fiji seized the yacht under a warrant alleging it was owned by Suleiman Kerimov, who has been placed under sanctions by the United States. Efforts to auction the yacht were being challenged by Eduard Khudainatov, who claimed he owns the yacht and says it cannot be forfeited because he has not been hit with sanctions. U.S. prosecutors stated that the excessive maintenance bill justified an auction.

USA want to expropriate seized oligarch yacht

The United States wants to permanently expropriate the 'Amadea', which is owned by the Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov. The American prosecutor Damian Williams has filed the forfeiture order. Kerimov was sanctioned in 2018 because of his ties to the Russian dictator Putin. In 2021, he made a deal to buy the yacht through a series of corporate entities, in order to obscure who owned the ship. He also violated the imposed sanctions by having more than one million dollars worth of maintenance work done on the ship. The yacht was initially seized by Fijian authorities after crossing the Pacific Ocean when Russia invaded the Ukraine. US government officials believed the ship was headed to Vladivostok, a Russian port near North Korea, when it was seized in Fiji. The ship was subsequently seized by the US Department of Justice and transferred to California, where it remains chained. Another Russian oligarch, Eduard Khudaynatov, claims to be the owner of the yacht and to get the ship back. His lawyers submitted documents to the Fijian court to this effect and have also filed a lawsuit in the US to get the superyacht back.