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Untrained crew on $700 million superyacht linked to Vladimir Putin watched instructions on videos: report

• Untrained crew members on the Scheherazade were reportedly following instructions on videos.
• eSysman SuperYachts posted a video on YouTube claiming the crew were Russian secret service members.
• The Scheherazade, linked to Vladimir Putin, has been seized by Italian authorities.

Untrained crew members aboard a superyacht linked to Vladimir Putin had to follow instructions on videos, according to claims made in a new video. 

eSysman Superyachts is a YouTube channel run by a former superyacht crew member who has been posting videos for several years. His videos have been viewed almost 75 million times. 

In a YouTube video published on May 20 , he went to Marina Di Cararra in Italy, where the $700 million Scheherazade linked to the Russian president has been moored for more than six months. Earlier this month it was seized by Italian authorities over its links with "prominent elements of the Russian government".

The 140-metre yacht has six floors, two helipads, a swimming pool, a spa complex, and a beauty salon, according to a YouTube video posted by activists working with the imprisoned Putin opponent Alexei Navalny.

The publisher of eSysman Superyachts said he spoke to someone who worked on the superyacht when it was being built. "When it came out of the shipyard, they had to do handover notes for the other crew." Having two independent crews was "unheard of," he said.

"When they were on board, they had to make videos of how to launch a tender [support vessel], and how to hang the fenders," adding "they had to make videos in English of the procedures of how to do things and they said that the person who told them to do that would later add Russian subtitles to the videos," eSysman Superyachts said. 

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He added: "It also means that if you have to do a step-by-step procedure on a video of how to launch a tender, that means the person that's watching it has never launched a tender."

eSysman Superyachts said "the crew, up until a couple of months ago, were all Russian and they were all part of the FSO, which is the Russian secret service," according to a crew list manifest. 

He asked: "Why would you have Russian security service working on a boat owned by an oil tycoon?"

Insider reported that a Russian billionaire acted as a "straw owner" to hide the true owner of superyachts, including the Scheherazade, worth about $1 billion. 

Amid western sanctions, superyachts belonging to Russian oligarchs have been seized or detained around the world. The US is trying to seize a $325 million superyacht in Fiji that belongs to Suleiman Kerimov.

The  FBI found evidence  aboard the vessel incriminating the owner, who "caused US dollar transactions to be routed through US financial institutions for the support and maintenance of the Amadea." 

Five superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs are now docked in Turkey in a bid to avoid Western sanctions triggered by the invasion of Ukraine, Insider reported earlier this month.

Watch: BILL BROWDER: How sanctions on Russia hurt Putin's closest allies

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eSysman SuperYachts YouTube Channel Stats

Data Updated on Jul 19, 2024

Apr 15, 2008

United Kingdom

Channel Description

Get your SuperYacht News here from experienced SuperYacht crew who understand the industry. Nobody else reports on the industry like us! The team at eSysman SuperYachts are all serving or ex-maritime professionals. eSysman himself has over 2 decades in the industry working on various SuperYachts of all sizes including some of the largest in the world. We use our skills & experience to explain this often secretive industry in layman's terms for the enjoyment and education of all. We include the much viewed 'SuperYacht News' segment plus all types of videos on every aspect of the industry. Including: Onboard videos of yachts in operation, onboard tours, how to get into the industry & picturesque videos of yachts in the most amazing locations.

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+ 0.37 % ( Last 30 days )

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+ 1.07 % ( Last 30 days )

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$ 2.5K - $ 7.4K

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Inside new superyacht Ulyssia with 132-room hotel, pools and theatre

• World's most wealthy will be able to own a share of the 1,050ft yacht with all the luxuries of modern living 

'For a life without boundaries,' promise the makers of the superyacht 'Ulyssia', a planned 1,050ft (320m) vessel bigger than The Titanic that its owners say with 'transform our concept of discovery and home'.

The Ulyssia is still some four years away from its expected date of completion, but new images provide unprecedented insight into the life of luxury on board, including 132 lavish apartments said to 'meet the standards of a five-star hotel', a theatre, a library, various pools and great underwater panoramic windows.

Although it is not yet known exactly how much residency on board will cost, details have begun to emerge around the kind of lifestyle guests can expect to enjoy. Beyond the essential amenities - restaurants, a medical centre, an XXL wine cellar - residents will also be able to bring home comfort on board, customising their rooms to their liking.

Residents hoping to get away from the hustle and bustle of modern life are expected to be able to take out a 50 year lease to stay on the ship in rooms ranging from 112 to 1000sq-m. Those with lives still on land will have access to two helicopters on board to bring guests back and forth.

The mega yacht belongs to Swiss company Ulyssia Residence AG and is the brainchild of Espen Øino, a veteran Monaco-based yacht designer from Norway with a track record of drawing up swanky yachts with bespoke touches for the world's richest.

The superyacht is presented as a base of operations for some of the world's most fortunate people, a place to kick back and relax after a busy day of adventuring through foreign wonders.

Alain Gruber, CEO of Ulyssia Residences AG, said: 'The concept behind Ulyssia is to travel the world - but from your own home. 

'Every day you can go out and discover new destinations around the world, but in the evening you can come back to your family in your own four walls.'

The homes on board will be offered in configurations of one to six bedrooms, and are set to include open-plan kitchens, terraces and receptions with all the comforts of the modern home.

Residents can also house guests in one of 22 slightly smaller guest apartments - also offering a space for lecturers and experts to stay when visiting, according to BOAT International , a guide for the superyacht enthusiast.

FM Architetture and eight other top designers have been drawn in to fit the interiors to residents' individual tastes.

The company has an impressive portfolio of working on boats, homes, towers and hotels in a range of classical and contemporary stylings.

To suit everybody's needs, the yacht will carry a range of permanent entertainment, including a two-level theatre, a library and several conference rooms.

Restaurants will welcome 'world famous but also up-and-coming chefs' - although residents will also have access to a grocery store with 'local products from the piers' if they fancy a quiet one. 

Beyond practical usage, the helicopters, it is promised, can also be used to 'facilitate epic adventures' like heliskiing.

'[Every resident] has something in common. They want to travel, they are curious, they are adventurous,' said Mr Gruber.

'But after that, they divide up into these sub-groups. 

'You have your foodies, you have your divers, you have your sailors, you have your art collectors, people that interested in reading and book clubs – all those subcommittees will start to form on board and create a real sense of community.'

For longevity, the yacht will be powered by methanol and other biofuels, according to Bild , ensuring it can keep sailing for decades without becoming too taxing on the environment.

Solar panels will also help make use of natural resources to slash emissions on this ship of the future.

Ownership will be on a shared freehold basis, with residents owning the ship in perpetuity and in proportion to the square footage owned, BOAT International reports. 

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What happened to Russia’s seized superyachts?

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Miles Johnson

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On the morning of March 29 2022, Captain Guy Booth was working aboard Phi, a 192ft aquamarine superyacht moored in London’s Canary Wharf, when he heard a commotion below. Down on the pier a car had pulled up and Grant Shapps, then the UK’s transport secretary, emerged from the vehicle, followed by a retinue of aides.

“The first thing we saw was his entourage, several men and women carrying clipboards and make-up and hairbrushes,” says Booth. 

Shapps and his team then began to shoot a video for the social media network TikTok, where the government minister announced that Phi — built in 2021 by the famed Dutch luxury shipbuilder Royal Huisman and worth an estimated £38mn — “belongs to a Russian oligarch, friends of Putin”.

Booth watched in amazement as several television crews who’d been tipped off about the news arrived at the scene. “Shapps was positioning himself like a big game hunter, checking his best angle,” says Booth. “They took several takes.”

Next, a black cab arrived and three officers from the UK’s National Crime Agency got out. They climbed aboard and handed Booth a brown envelope. Inside was a government order: the boat he captained was now detained for being “owned by persons connected with Russia”.

Video description

A video shot by Grant Shapps in Canary Wharf, which shows the yacht Phi after the order to detain it in London

Today, Phi is still moored in the same spot in Canary Wharf outside an Indian restaurant, and with a small skeleton crew aboard. Each day, Booth, along with two engineers, a chief officer, a crew cook and two deck hands wake up on board and dutifully service the vessel.

Its once feted “infinite wine cellar” and seven-metre swimming pool lie unused. A lonely sun lounger sits out on deck, and the yacht’s Maltese maritime flag droops. Pink paint has been applied to its roof to protect it from the risk of dust from nearby building sites. 

Paul Dickie, a lawyer at Jaffa & Co who has represented Phi, claims the boat has been targeted by squatters. A notice on its side warns any would-be trespassers that they will be prosecuted “to the full extent of the law”.

For western nations, the yachts’ fate is a high-stakes test of the effectiveness of sanctions. For the lawyers who work for the owners, these seizures are acts of modern piracy

Phi’s owner, a Russian businessman called Sergei Naumenko, has repeatedly denied any connection to Vladimir Putin or the Russian state, and has twice unsuccessfully appealed to the English courts to have the yacht released. 

In May 2023 an English High Court judge said Shapps’s TikTok video claims that the owner had “close connections to Putin” were “excusable political hyperbole”. The Court of Appeal in March this year said it was “troubled” by Shapps’s “incorrect” statements. Both courts, however, upheld the UK detention order for the vessel.

After Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 prompted western governments to unleash an avalanche of economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs, there are now multiple superyachts like Phi trapped in ports around the world. Several are stuck in seemingly never-ending legal quagmires, with vastly expensive lawyers hired by often opaque offshore owners battling for their release.

Although tens of billions of dollars of Russian-owned luxury assets, including mansions, luxury cars and private jets, have been frozen, it was the symbolism of the seizure of the oligarch superyachts — vast, floating Versailles palaces often worth hundreds of millions of dollars — that captured the public’s imagination. Anti-corruption campaigners hoped at the time that these vessels would be auctioned off and the proceeds could be donated to Ukraine.

Yet more than two years on from the start of the war, the future of these superyachts remains unresolved. Once prized trophies in the west’s co-ordinated response to Russia’s aggression, some have racked up vast maintenance costs for taxpayers, had their angry crews turn fire hoses and drones on snooping reporters, and been the target of sabotage plots by anti-war activists. 

For western governments, resolving the fate of these superyachts will be a high-stakes test of the effectiveness of economic sanctions. For lawyers working for the oligarchs who own them, the seizures are acts of modern piracy.

Perhaps no single vessel exemplifies the array of headaches that seized superyachts have caused western governments more than the Amadea — a $300mn, 348ft boat detained by the US authorities in Fiji in 2022.

Such is its gaudy opulence that the Amadea could be a pastiche of an oligarch’s fantasies. According to a 2021 profile in Boat International, it boasts a Pleyel piano with 24-carat gold pedals, a swimming pool that converts into a stage for DJs, hand-painted Michelangelo clouds on the dining-room ceiling, a lobster tank and a helipad. 

When the US Department of Justice seized the Amadea, it claimed that it was owned by the sanctioned Dagestan-born gold magnate Suleiman Kerimov. The DoJ said he was “part of a group of Russian oligarchs who profit from the Russian government through corruption and its malign activity around the globe”.

Deputy US attorney-general Lisa Monaco announced at the time that the seizure “should tell every corrupt Russian oligarch that they cannot hide”. Not long after Amadea was seized in Fiji, she told the Aspen Security Forum that investigators had even discovered an “alleged Fabergé egg” aboard. It was later found to be an imitation.

The Amadea was then moved by the US authorities from Fiji to San Diego, where it is currently moored. The US government last October brought a civil forfeiture case against the superyacht based on its claim that it was owned by Kerimov. 

We have 60,000 litres of diesel on board. If there are problems with fire detection, that could be very dangerous. You can’t get a fire engine in here’ Captain Guy Booth

During the time the Amadea has been stuck in San Diego, it has racked up maintenance bills of $740,000 a month, or almost $9mn a year, to be paid by the US government. Because of this, the Department of Justice moved to try to sell the boat, arguing that the costs it was incurring were “excessive”. 

Superyachts require constant maintenance and upkeep to keep their seaworthiness, let alone their value. Crew salaries and vast mooring fees must be paid. Hulls must be scraped, engines must be cleaned.

“The water here is brackish, half freshwater and half seawater, so things grow in it,” Booth says about Phi. “We are constantly having to remove biological marine growth from the filters. The teak decks require constant daily attention.”

Sabotage is also a risk. Lady Anastasia, a yacht seized in Mallorca and owned by the CEO of the Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheev, in February 2022 was almost destroyed by a Ukrainian mechanic working on the boat who tried to intentionally sink it.

Some boats have simply disappeared. In the summer of 2022, two yachts owned by Dmitry Mazepin, another sanctioned Russian billionaire, vanished from the Sardinian port of Olbia. An investigation by Italy’s financial police, which had seized both yachts shortly after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, found that one had made a stopover in Tunisia before vanishing, while the other was spotted sailing towards Turkey. In response, Italy has hit Mazepin with fines, which remain unpaid.

Booth says he believes Phi has suffered significant damage, as well as lost charter earnings, as a result of being stuck in Canary Wharf. “I am not at liberty to discuss the exact figure,” he says, “but it is huge. We are talking tens of millions of pounds.” 

Because of the freezing order, Phi’s Dutch manufacturer is unable to perform warranty work on the yacht. One of many issues, Booth says, is that he has been unable to fix faulty fire protection systems.

“We have 60,000 litres of diesel on board. If there are problems with the fire detection systems, that could be very dangerous. Exceptionally dangerous. You could have an ecological disaster in central London. You can’t get a fire engine in here.”

In Phi’s case, the costs are all borne by its Russian owner, who — unlike many other owners of frozen yachts — is not sanctioned and has not been proven to have any meaningful connection to the Russian state. He will be able to get this money back from the UK government only if the restriction order is overturned and he can then win a successful damages claim.

For other superyachts, the burden of paying for upkeep falls on the countries where they are being held. Lady M, a yacht owned by the sanctioned Russian steel and mining magnate Alexei Mordashov, has been blocked from leaving the Italian port of Imperia as one of seven yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs in the country.

Another, Sailing Yacht A, designed by Philippe Starck and, at 468ft long, one of the largest private sail-assisted motor yachts in the world, is currently impounded in the port of Trieste. Alleged by the Italian state to be owned by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko, the boat is estimated to have cost the Italian taxpayer more than €18mn in upkeep, according to the local newspaper Il Piccolo. Lawyers for Melnichenko have said he does not personally own the yacht, and instead it is controlled by a trust that has no connection to him.

Costs aside, seizing a superyacht is simple enough, provided it is in the right place. At the time of the invasion, the only way for sanctioned Russian oligarchs to protect their yachts was to be lucky or shrewd enough to not have them in territories or waters where they could be captured. In March 2022, two superyachts belonging to Roman Abramovich, one of them featuring an onboard missile defence system and anti-paparazzi “laser shield”, sailed away from Europe towards Turkey and remain free to this day.

But in an industry where it is common to own vessels through cascades of offshore companies and anonymous trusts, a far trickier task for investigators can be to prove in court who really owns a superyacht once it has been detained.

Legal tussles over the ownership of government-seized assets are common. The difference with the superyachts is the owners’ legal resources, the value of the assets and the cost to the taxpayer

In the case of the Amadea, the US government has been battling in court to prove that Kerimov is its true owner before it can be allowed to sell the yacht and stop paying the vast costs of its upkeep.

The Department of Justice appeared to have strong evidence to back up its claims, including records showing that Kerimov’s family spent large amounts of time on the Amadea, and that his children had requested structural modifications to the superyacht.

However, Kerimov denied ownership. Instead, a different wealthy Russian, Eduard Khudainatov, a former chief executive of the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft, stepped forward to claim that he, in fact, was the true owner of the Amadea and the seizure was unlawful.

“When you need records from overseas, when you are dealing with shell companies in secrecy jurisdictions, or people are hiding behind nominee owners, it’s going to take a long time,” says Stefan Cassella, a former federal prosecutor who served 30 years in the US Department of Justice specialising in asset forfeiture.

Cassella says these sorts of legal tussles over who owns an asset that has been seized by a government are common. The difference in the case of oligarch-owned superyachts is the legal resources available to the owners fighting the seizures, the size and value of the assets, and the cost to the taxpayer of keeping them afloat.

“We litigate this all the time,” Cassella tells me. “Say a drug agent sees a dealer dealing from a Mercedes car and they want to seize it. He claims it’s not his car, that his mother or sister owns it. We then need to litigate with that person to see if they are really the owner. Who pays the insurance? Who brought it in to get oil changed? Whose garage is it sitting in? This is the same, just on a much larger scale.”

The US responded in a court filing to Khudainatov’s claim to own the Amadea by accusing him of being a “clean, unsanctioned straw owner” serving as a front for Kerimov. Khudainatov’s lawyers have denied he is a straw owner and say he is the legal owner of the yacht.

The picture was further muddied when it was alleged by the US in court documents that Khudainatov, who in June 2022 was placed under EU sanctions, was the fake owner of another, even more valuable and mysterious super yacht, the Scheherazade — which he has denied.

The Scheherazade, one of the longest yachts in the world, worth an estimated $700mn, was seized by the Italian authorities in the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara in May 2022 because of its suspected “meaningful economic and business connections with prominent elements of the Russian government subject to EU sanctions”.

In 2022 the now deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation published an investigation that claimed that the Scheherazade was in fact owned by Putin himself, based on the fact that many of its crew were agents of the Federal Protective Service, a state security unit responsible for the Russian president’s personal safety.

The US authorities have argued it is impossible that one man could own so many yachts, writing in court documents that “there is no reason to believe [Khudainatov] has the financial resources to purchase the Amadea and the Scheherazade, or is there any apparent reason why a single individual would own multiple superyachts of their size”.

Whoever is the true owner of the Scheherazade, they have not let its seizure dim their ambitions. During the time it has been held in Tuscany, the Italian government has allowed the owner to pay for an expensive refurbishment. It is a decoration job that the owner clearly wants to conduct in privacy. When reporters from Radio Free Europe tried to get close to the vessel earlier this year the Scheherazade’s crew turned on fire hoses, and deployed a drone to follow them.

Meanwhile, last month a New York court ruled that the US government was not allowed to sell the Amadea, meaning that US taxpayers will have to continue for now to foot the bill for its upkeep. 

Even if governments are able to establish ownership and get court permission to sell a superyacht, further legal complexities can make finding a buyer difficult. In June 2023 the Alfa Nero, a yacht alleged to be owned by the US-sanctioned phosphate billionaire Andrey Guryev, which has been impounded in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua, was sold at auction for $67mn to former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.

The deal later fell apart, with the US ambassador to Antigua announcing that Schmidt backed out of the purchase because he was worried about future legal problems if he bought it.

Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, Guryev’s daughter, this year launched a challenge to the Antiguan government’s decision to seize and sell the Alfa Nero, claiming that she is the sole beneficiary of the trust that owns the yacht, rather than her father. The case is expected to be heard in September.

Back in the UK, Booth, the captain of Phi, believes that the yacht and its owner have been unfairly caught up in events outside of their control. “He’s not a billionaire, he’s never met Putin,” Booth says of Phi’s owner Sergei Naumenko. “He’s against the war. He’s just a private Russian gentleman who likes boats.” 

Phi will make another bid to be freed in the UK’s Supreme Court, in an appeal to be heard next January.

Captain Booth says he will not desert his ship. “My team and I have remained on board, remained loyal. I’ve won numerous awards for what I do in my industry. I could have left almost straight away, and said, ‘This is not my bag, I’m off to captain another superyacht in the Med’ . . . I would not sleep well at night if I abandoned this owner.”

But Booth and his crew may be waiting a long time. Cassella, the forfeiture lawyer, says he expects many cases to drag on for as long as a decade. “I thought two years ago when all the superyachts were seized that 10 years was an appropriate timeframe,” he says. “This is not going to be resolved any time soon.”

Miles Johnson is an investigative reporter for the FT. His book ‘Chasing Shadows: A True Story of Drugs, War and The Secret World of International Crime’ is now out in paperback

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Ten Brits arrested as £96million global cocaine smuggling operation smashed

The operation began back in 2020 and among others has seen about 1.2 tonnes of cocaine being found on board of a yacht, with an estimated street value of £96 million

• 10:32, 20 Jul 2024

Ten Brits have been arrested as part of an investigation into a cartel which brought drugs to Europe from South America.

Seven of those ten were living in the Spanish city of Malaga , while another one was a resident of Portugal. Half of those arrested were women, with law enforcement believing businesswomen were leading a money laundering scam to clean drug money .

The operation began back in 2020 and led to a Spanish-registered yacht being stopped 1,200 miles east of Martinique in the Caribbean by a French navy frigate on December 18, 2023. About 1.2 tonnes of cocaine were found on board of the yacht, officials said.

The captain, a 30-year-old man from Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, was arrested along with two other British nationals.

At the time, the estimated street value in the UK of the drugs was said to be around £96 million by the National Crime Agency (NCA). An additional 0.3 tonnes of cocaine was seized by law enforcement agencies including Spain's Policia Nacional, Norway's National Criminal Investigation Service, the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the European Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre, with the support of Europol.

A total of 52 people have been arrested, with eight boats, 36 vehicles, firearms and ammunition seized. The NCA said the gang was led by a Norwegian believed to have been trading in drugs for more than two decades.

In 2020, intelligence identified a British crime group based in Spain responsible for trafficking cocaine across the Atlantic. It owned a fleet of vessels used to transport drugs from South America to Europe via Spain.

The long-running investigation identified routes used to bring drugs to Spain for onward distribution, including into the UK. Sailing routes included to and from the Spanish coastal cities Valencia, Alicante and Malaga, to Brazil , Colombia , Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Barbados and Panama.

The NCA said the Norwegian leader had the full trust of Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, and co-ordinated the production of the drugs and its transportation through South America until it could be shipped to Spain. The investigation found drug money was reinvested in new operations and laundered through a global network of businesswomen.

Three women from Boston, Lincolnshire, aged 19, 38, and 28, who were all living in Malaga were arrested. A 54-year-old woman from Chelmsford, Essex, and a 49-year-old woman from Nottingham were also detained, as were a 63-year-old man from Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, and a 24-year-old British man. All four were living in Malaga.

Also detained was a 37-year-old man from Bracknell, Berkshire, who was living in Portugal, as well as the 30-year-old yacht skipper from Lewis and another Scottish man aged 34.

Neil Keeping, NCA regional manager in Spain, said: "This Spanish-led international operation has dismantled a major drug trafficking crime group and resulted in the arrests of 10 British nationals - eight from England and two from Scotland .

"The NCA's international network has played a leading role in sharing intelligence with overseas partners to intercept huge shipments of drugs and trace key members of the criminal enterprise.

"A portion of the Class A drugs seized would have undoubtedly been destined for the UK, where its supply at street level fuels violence and exploitation, and brings misery to our communities. Tackling global crime groups such as this one requires strong collaboration with international partners, and our efforts alongside them continue to ensure these networks are demolished."

MORE ON Smuggling Cocaine Crime Spain Drugs

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Fire rescue responds to key biscayne yacht club after shark bite report.

Bridgette Matter , Reporter

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. – Fire rescue personnel treated a shark-related injury on Thursday in Key Biscayne.

Fire rescue personnel wanted to take the person from the Key Biscayne Yacht Club to the hospital, but the person refused.

The person was injured in the leg.

Copyright 2024 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.

About the Author

Bridgette matter.

Bridgette Matter joined the Local 10 News team as a reporter in July 2021. Before moving to South Florida, she began her career in South Bend, Indiana and spent six years in Jacksonville as a reporter and weekend anchor.

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Chinese magnate with a red Lamborghini and superyacht convicted for bilking $1 billion from investors

Exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui, whose crusade against the Communist Party attracted allies including Donald Trump associate Steve Bannon, was convicted for duping investors out of $1 billion to fund his luxury lifestyle.

After a trial in Manhattan that lasted almost two months, Guo was found guilty on Tuesday of fraud and racketeering conspiracy. Convicted on nine of the 12 counts against him, he faces as many as 20 years in prison on the most serious charges when he is sentenced on Nov. 19. 

Guo “brazenly operated several interrelated fraud schemes, all designed to fleece his loyal followers out of their hard-earned money so that Guo could spend his days in his 50,000-square-foot mansion, driving his $1 million Lamborghini, or lounging on his $37 million yacht,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the verdict.

A lawyer for Guo declined to comment, but Guo is almost certain to appeal the verdict.

Guo smiled at his lawyers as the jury walked out, hugged attorney Sabrina Shroff and shook the hands of other members of the defense team. The outspoken businessman, also known as Ho Wan Kwok or Miles Guo, was tried before jurors whose names were kept secret — an unusual move designed to shield them in a case that has drawn intense interest. 

Appealing to a huge online following, Guo raised money from investors for seemingly legitimate businesses but diverted the funds to spend on himself and his family. The trial involved weeks of testimony from investors drawn to Guo through his public critique of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as from luxury car dealers who sold him rare vehicles and a managing director at Kyle Bass’ hedge fund Hayman Capital Management, which ran a hedge fund that the government said Guo invested $100 million of the stolen funds in. 

Neither Bass, Hayman nor Bannon was accused of wrongdoing in the case.

Videos From His Superyacht

Guo amassed his social media following through videos recorded from his penthouse at the Sherry-Netherland hotel overlooking New York’s Central Park or from the deck of his 152-foot superyacht. Guo claimed his fortune came from his wealthy real estate developer family in China. But a portion of his wealth, federal prosecutors said, also came from stealing $1 billion through bogus investment opportunities he hawked online. 

The jury began its deliberations Thursday but was forced to start over with an alternate juror after a member of the panel admitted to Googling the name of a co-defendant, who is still at large. 

The defense urged the jurors not to let Guo’s expensive tastes cloud their judgment, claiming he flaunted his wealth as a form of protest against the Communist Party. 

The prosecution had its own framing. “Is Miles Guo a real political activist?” Assistant US Attorney Juliana Murray said Thursday during closing arguments. “I don’t know and I don’t care, because that’s not what this trial is about.”

Mysterious Background

The case explored Guo’s mysterious background, including fleeing persecution in China, his ties to Bannon and how he came to pour millions into Hayman Capital’s high-risk wager against the Hong Kong dollar. 

Bannon was on Guo’s yacht off the coast of Connecticut in 2020 when the political adviser was arrested on charges he conspired to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars from a campaign to finance a wall on the US southern border. Trump pardoned Bannon just before leaving office.

In 2020, Guo transfered $100 million raised through an illicit stock offering in his GTV Media Group to the Hayman Hong Kong Opportunities Fund, which held a position that the country’s currency peg to the US dollar would collapse, according to prosecutors. Bannon introduced Guo and Bass, a longtime China skeptic. Bannon himself was paid $1 million as a consultant to GTV’s parent company Saraca Media Group, evidence presented at the trial showed. 

After Hayman received the investment, Bannon emailed Bass. 

‘Congrats on Miles Deal’

“Congrats on miles deal,” Bannon wrote, according to an email presented as evidence. “He thinks u r biggest superstar in finance.” 

A month later, the US Securities and Exchange Commission contacted Hayman to inquire about the source of the funds. When Bass asked Guo’s financial adviser for an explanation, he got no reply, evidence showed. By that point, close to $30 million had been lost in the unsuccessful currency wager. 

The remaining $70 million was eventually handed over to authorities.

Guo was acquitted on Tuesday of fraud related to the stock offering in GTV and of unlawful monetary transaction in connection with the $100 million transfer to the Hayman hedge fund.

$539 Million SEC Settlement

In 2021, three Guo-linked companies, including GTV, agreed to pay  $539 million  to settle the SEC’s investigation into unregistered stock offerings. 

According to prosecutors, other Guo scams involved an exclusive private members-only club with a minimum $10,000 buy-in, a crypto platform called the Himalaya Exchange and a farm loan program. 

The government alleged Guo also peeled off investor funds to spend on luxuries including a red Lamborghini, a $4 million Ferrari for his son and a $26 million New Jersey mansion.

The case is US v. Guo, 23-cr-00118, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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Will Smith and Johnny Depp Seen on Yacht Trip Together

Will smith and johnny depp were photographed on a yacht together days before they performed at andrea bocelli's 30th anniversary show..

Captain Jack Sparrow is back on the high seas with a new friend.

Johnny Depp and Will Smith   were photographed together on a yacht, along with Egyptian singer Ahmed Saad , during a trip to Europe.

"Great feeling to gather with friends," Saad wrote in Arabic on an Instagram post shared July 16. "Thanks my friends for the lovely visit."

Depp, 61, wore a printed shirt over a T-shirt, paired with jeans, sunglasses and a bandana. Smith, 55, sported a blue button-down short-sleeve shirt over a white top, paired with gray shorts and white socks.

Days later, Depp and the Men in Black actor performed in Italy on the second night of a three-day concert celebrating Andrea Bocelli and the 30th anniversary of the start of his music career.

During the July 17 show, Smith performed a spoken rendition of the Broadway classic "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel   while Depp played guitar onstage as Bocelli sang “En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor."

The night also featured performances from Russell Crowe and  Ed Sheeran , with the famed Italian singer sharing highlights on his Instagram Stories.

"Amazing encounter with Hollywood legends," he wrote on his Instagram , alongside videos of himself with several of the stars, "which possess incredible musical skills besides their Oscar winning acting abilities."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Plácido Domingo (@placido_domingo)

Look back at past surprising celebrity friendships...

Mindy Kaling & Reese Witherspoon

They have been friends for years and have worked together. The two starred together in A Wrinkle in Time , while Mindy also had a recurring role on The Morning Show . In addition, the latter is co-writing Legally Blonde 3 . Weirdness: 3/10

Ayesha Curry & Lindsay Lohan

The Food Network star and  Mean Girls alum first became friends during a trip to Dubai years ago and have since grown closer . In fact, Ayesha and Stephen Curry were even named the godparents of Lindsay and husband Bader Shammas ' son, Laui.

Adam Sandler & Timothée Chalamet

The two actors, who costarred in the 2014 film  Men, Women & Children , reunited for an outdoor game of basketball in New York City in July 2023.

The actor has worked with the Wu-Tang Clan rapper on several movies, including The Man with the Iron Fists , American Gangster and The Next Three Days . But their bond goes much deeper than that. "As friends, we talk," Crowe tells Fuse. "It is no effort for me to give a friend advice. Film has many gods and you have to understand, as a director, you will be required to please and appease them all."

Before running into each other again at Wimbledon, the unlikely duo first crossed paths at the Downton Abbey set. "She actually came on-set with her brother, James, a few years ago," Dockery told E! News ."They are good fans of the show."

When the "footballer" moved to L.A. and became a "soccer player," he befriended the rapper. Becks appeared on Snoop's reality show, the two played soccer and Snoop plays his new music for David first. Weirdness: 8/10

The two former child actors have worked on two films, Twilight  and The Runaways , but Dakota says their friendship isn't based on work, " When we're together, we're not talking about movie stuff."  Weirdness: 3/10

Paris Hilton & Britney Spears

The two hung out together in the aughts and maintained their friendship over the years.

The two have two very different approaches to fashion (has Anna ever been bedazzled?), but they bonded in the front row of an Oscar de la Renta show and Anna scored a name-drop in one of Nicki's raps. Weirdness: 7/10

Now this is one strange duet ! Fiddy met Bette working for the charity   New York Restoration Project, where she gushed, "He's one of the newest members of our tribe. He's really made my life worth living." Weirdness: 9/10 

Taylor is a self-proclaimed good girl. Lena isn't afraid to stir the pot. But they have a lot of mutual respect for each other and the Girls  creator  described T.Swift's show as the "most life-affirming thing I've experienced." Weirdness: 6/10

The former  King of Queens actress has been supertight with Jenny From the Block for a while now, bonding over fashion and tweeting cutesy things at each other with the hashtag "#luckybesties." Weirdness: 3/10

The Goop goddess herself is actually friends with both Jay and his wife, Beyoncé, though you might be more surprised to learn that Gwyn is an intense rap enthusiast and her kids even call Mr. Carter "Uncle Jay." Weirdness: 5/10

You might not expect the hunky thespian to be close with the dude from Superbad , but look at it this way: Pitt is a total prankster ( says Jonah ) and Jonah is now a serious Oscar nominee (for their film Moneyball ). Weirdness: 6/10

The controversial rapper joined forces with Sir Elton at the 2001 Grammys and later Em turned to his new friend for support getting sober: "I told him, 'Look, I'm going through a problem and I need your advice.'" Weirdness: 7/10

Fact-checking Trump's speech accepting the GOP nomination

Former President Donald Trump pitched a familiar worldview Thursday night: an administration that would stop wars, curb inflation and end illegal immigration.

But his third Republican National Convention speech — the longest nomination acceptance address in modern history, at 93 minutes — included a series of false claims on topics from taxes to crime to foreign policy.

Here's what Trump said in Milwaukee and the facts behind his claims.

Do Democrats want to ‘destroy’ Social Security and Medicare?

“I’m going to protect Social Security and Medicare. Democrats are going to destroy Social Security and Medicare," Trump said.

This is misleading.

Trump has  waffled on the issue for years , but now says he wouldn’t cut Social Security or Medicare. President Joe Biden advocated for cuts decades ago but has opposed them for more than 10 years. 

Before he ran for office, Trump called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” in 2000 and endorsed then-Rep. Paul Ryan’s plans to restructure Medicare in 2012. As a presidential candidate, he positioned himself as the protector of those programs in 2016, but he took aim at some retirement spending in his White House budgets (which never became law).

Biden has repeatedly pointed to an  interview with CNBC in March , when Trump said, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” During this campaign, Trump has mostly insisted he wouldn’t cut Social Security and Medicare. After the CNBC interview, Trump sought to clean up his remarks, saying in an interview with the  conservative website Breitbart , “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare.” 

In the 1990s, Biden spoke about trying and failing repeatedly to cut government spending, including Social Security and Medicare. But he turned firmly against Social Security cuts more than a decade ago, as the Democratic Party moved toward supporting expanded retirement benefits. In the last week, Biden has embraced calls among progressives to back an expansion of Social Security benefits if he’s re-elected, although neither he nor the White House has offered specifics about that.

Is most of Trump’s pledged border wall built?

“I will end the illegal immigration crisis by closing our border and finishing the wall, most of which I have already built," Trump said.

Not according to Trump’s past promises.

A government report from 2023 found that the Trump administration installed about 458 miles of wall . The vast majority of that replaced existing structures —  estimates from 2021 pegged  the total new construction at just 47 miles of wall where none had existed before.

But even if that full 458-mile figure is what Trump is referring to, he had repeatedly promised during his 2016 presidential campaign that the wall would be  about 1,000 miles long .

Did Trump stop North Korean missile launches?

“We stopped the missile launches from North Korea,” Trump said.

This is false.

North Korea continued to launch short-range ballistic missiles during Trump’s tenure, even when the two countries held talks to try to negotiate a possible agreement that would have eased sanctions in return for North Korea’s curtailing its nuclear missile program.

Early in his administration, Trump warned North Korea not to threaten the U.S. or “they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Was there peace abroad under Trump?

“I was the first president in modern times to start no new wars. ... Under President Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under President Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under the current administration, Russia is after all of Ukraine. Under President Trump, Russia took nothing," Trump said.

President Jimmy Carter didn’t declare war or seek any authorization of force. No U.S. troops died in hostile action during his administration, while at least 65 active-duty U.S. troops died in hostile action during the Trump administration.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea, continued under his presidency. Pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow continued to wage war in eastern Ukraine against the government in Kyiv during Trump’s administration.

Is the crime rate going up in the U.S.?

“Our crime rate is going up while crime statistics all over the world are plunging,” Trump said.

This is misleading, according to the most comprehensive data.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said last month that the latest crime statistics showed  a significant drop in violent crime , an overall dip of 15.2%, in the first three months of 2024 compared to 2023 (with larger drops in murders, robberies, reported rapes and aggravated assaults).

Preliminary data shows the crime rate also  dropped significantly in 2023 , according to FBI data that covers law enforcement departments with jurisdiction over 82% of the American population.

There are limits to what the data can tell us, it’s incomplete, and not all crime is properly reported. But the indications we have don’t support the picture Trump is painting of crime in America.

As far as the crime rate’s “plunging” all over the world, there’s a lot of world. A 2023  United Nations report on homicide  found an increase from 2021 to 2022 and no evidence crime rates were falling in Africa but a decline in homicides in South America, significant decreases in Europe since 2017 and a relatively stagnant rate in Australia.

Is Biden planning to raise taxes ‘by four times’?

“This is the only administration that said we’re going to raise your taxes by four times what you’re paying now," Trump said.

This is false, according to Biden’s budget and campaign promises.

Trump has  made this claim  before. Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget would raise the top individual income tax rate from 37% to 39.6%, and it called for a 25% minimum tax on the highest earners, according to the  Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget . There are also other taxes, including those on those making at least $400,000, but nothing in the budget would suggest people’s taxes would be raised by a factor of four.

Biden has  pledged not to raise taxes  on anyone making less than $400,000, and he hasn’t proposed anything on the campaign trail that would raise taxes that high for a broad cross-section of people.

Did Trump end ‘catch and release’?

“We ended all ‘catch and release,’” Trump said.

Trump didn’t end “catch and release,” the practice of releasing migrants into the country with court dates while they await court hearings. The U.S. doesn’t have enough facilities to detain every migrant who crosses the border until they can see judges, no matter who is president, so Trump — like Barack Obama before him and Biden after him — released many migrants back into the U.S.

Did Democrats ‘use Covid to cheat’ in the 2020 election?

“The election result, we’re never going to let it happen again. They used Covid to cheat," Trump said.

Trump is referring to changes made during the Covid pandemic, largely to make it easier to vote by mail or absentee, as congregating at the polls posed a health risk. Democrats embraced the changes and turned out many voters by mail, while Trump slammed mail voting. There is no evidence the changes led to fraud, even though Trump and his allies filed  more than 50 lawsuits  challenging some facet of the 2020 election. All were denied, dismissed, settled or withdrawn, including  multiple that made  it to the  Supreme Court .

Are groceries 50% more expensive under Biden?

“It’s not affordable; people can’t live like this. Under this administration, our current administration, groceries are up 57%, gasoline is up 60 and 70%, mortgage rates have quadrupled,” Trump said.

This is exaggerated.

Some grocery items  have had huge price hikes, but overall grocery prices have risen 21% during the Biden administration. Gasoline prices are up 58% under Biden, while mortgage rates have more than doubled, not quadrupled.

Did Trump sign the biggest tax cut ever?

“We gave you the largest tax cut ever," Trump said.

The GOP-sponsored tax bill that Trump signed into law in December 2017 doesn’t amount to the “biggest” in U.S. history, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. According to its estimates, the tax cut  is the eighth biggest in history .

Does immigration spread disease?

“We also have an illegal immigration crisis, and it’s taking place right now as we sit here in this beautiful arena, some massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease and destruction to communities all across our land," Trump said.

Studies have found that migrants don’t spread disease. Instead, many help fight it, as migrants make up a significant proportion of health care workers.

A 2018 study in the  Journal of the American Medical Association  found that 16% of health care workers in the U.S. were born somewhere else, including 29% of physicians, 16% of registered nurses, 20% of pharmacists, 24% of dentists and 23% of nursing, psychiatric and home health aides.

“There is no evidence to show that migrants are spreading disease,” Dr. Paul Spiegel, who directs the Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said in 2018. “That is a false argument that is used to keep migrants out.”

Jane C. Timm is a senior reporter for NBC News.

Ben Kamisar is a national political reporter for NBC News

StarTribune

Review: stefani, morissette spark a 'hella good' start to minnesota yacht club festival.

Experience matters. Even in rock 'n' roll — and especially at rock 'n' roll festivals.

After eight months of cutesy marketing and ample media coverage, St. Paul's Minnesota Yacht Club festival finally set sail Friday on Harriet Island Regional Park and got off to a remarkably swift and smooth start for an inaugural music fest. Credit for its success should largely go to its seasoned crew.

The music lineup in the fest is heavily loaded with old pros, and that proved not to be a bad thing Friday. Opening day's feminist rock trifecta of Alanis Morissette, Gwen Stefani and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts all skillfully strutted their stuff and showed the kids how to get it done. Never mind that there were very few kids among the crowd of 34,000 fans.

As much as those venerable performers deserve props, though, so do the operators of Minnesota's first new major music fest in more than a decade.

The event was launched by C3 Presents, the Texas-founded company behind Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and a couple dozen more festivals. These folks truly know the music fest business. About time Twin Cities fans benefitted from it.

Yacht Club's electronic wristbands and well-trained security staff made for smooth entrances. The stage production and sound were primo. The layout and flow between the two stages was well-organized. The music ran nearly nonstop and on time. And all the assorted VIP and "platinum" areas offered added comfort for those willing to pay at least a few hundred bucks more more than the relatively good-value $215-$255 general-admission two-day passes.

One noticeable snag: Food and drink lines got long as the crowd swelled in the late afternoon. Good thing many Minnesotans are too cheap to down $15 beers, or things could've been worse.

Seriously, though, the crowd on opening day was discernibly devoid of youth and almost exclusively middle-aged. MYC's lack of musical and generational diversity could be considered a shortcoming for what was billed as a hip, modern festival.

All those teens and college kids buying up throwback Chili Peppers and No Doubt T-shirts at Urban Outfitters and Kohl's are apparently more into cheap fashion ware than they are those bands' music, because none of them showed up to Yacht Club on opening day. If they had to move the festival to September for any reason, falling on a school day probably wouldn't hurt attendance much.

There's plenty to learn and apply to future years. In the meantime, here are some general takeaways from Friday's festival:

Women obviously ruled the day. It was a nostalgic lineup, sure, but this one trait about Friday's lineup could be seen as a hip, modern element. Aside from specifically targeted events like Lilith Fair, you never would have seen a festival with that many female singers atop the poster card in the 1990s, when Morissette and Stefani's old band No Doubt were in their heyday; certainly not in the '80s, when Jett dominated.

Losing the Black Crowes on the lineup due to illness was a real disappointment, but that just emphasized the women headliners all the more. What's more, the day also saw electrifying sets by a couple other women-led acts, too: Country rocker Morgan Wade and the punky hometown band who kicked off the day in hard-throttling style, Gully Boys.

Stefani seemed to be having the most fun. Her husband, Blake Shelton, may have wisely picked up on the strong feminine vibe when he showed up to sing one song with her — and only one! — their new single "Purple Irises," compared with the three she sang with him in town at his TC Summer Jam gig in 2022 . That bit seemed to delight her a lot, but so did the crowd's excited reaction throughout her 75-minute performance, from "Sunday Morning" at the start to the mid-set groover "Hella Good" to her firebrand penultimate song, "Just a Girl."

"Think about how many years I've been loving you guys!" she cheered before the finale, adding, "This song means even more nowadays." Especially on this day.

The elder stateswoman rocked the hardest . This was the best and most bombastic of Jett's many gigs here in recent years. Of course, the 65-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's main hits went over in a big way at a big, summery music fest, including "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," "Bad Reputation" and the Runaways' "Cherry Bomb." She also dropped in a cool batch of edgier, deeper cuts with inclusive messaging, including "Different" and a cover of the Minnesota classic "Androgynous," which she introduced by saying, "I'm a big fan of this band and its songwriter, Paul Westerberg and the Replacements."

Morissette hasn't changed much (and that's a good thing). With an orange-ish moon adding dramatic ambience overhead, the Canadian record-maker/breaker put on a rather gutsy, in-your-face, 90-minute performance predictably filled with her big hits, including "One Hand in My Pocket" as the opener and "You Oughta Know" near the end. But she made the set way better than just a nostalgic singalong by delivering some similarly emphatic-sounding, inner-tumultuous newer songs, including the epic piano ballad "Rest" and the rockier "Smiling," the latter written for her hit Broadway musical, "Jagged Little Pill." Her voice was as strong as ever, her band was versatile, and she clearly deserved being the headliner.

There was one new element to the show we didn't see in the '90s, though: Morissette brought out her daughter Onyx, age 8, and another young friend to sing "Ironic." How ironic to hear it sung with such sweetness.

Even the younger acts sang the Gen-X hits. Wade earned loud cheers for her semi-ironic cover of Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl." Nerdy but impactful Kalamazoo indie-rocker Michigander sang part of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." The U2 song fit his own lost-wanderer, soul-searching vibe, evidenced by his unreleased tune that followed, "Giving Up." And after their own hit "Who's Laughing Now," local rockers Durry ended their set with a rousing take on Jimmyeatworld's "The Middle" (technically a millennials hit, but close enough).

The day's breakout performer was… . Sporting a Jett T-shirt and playing under a blazing midafternoon sun — things would soon cool down nicely with cloud cover — Wade coolly delivered an ultra-impressive set of musically refined, ruggedly poetic twang-rock that greatly contrasted her choice of covers. The Virginia singer came off like a tattooed Stevie Nicks in down-and-out rockers like "The Night" and "2 AM in London," each fueled by her smoky but sweet voice. A genuine wow.

What about Day Two? The bro factor should be much higher on Saturday, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers headlining, preceded by the Offspring, Gary Clark Jr., the Hold Steady, Soul Asylum and Hippo Campus. Tickets are sold-out except for some higher-end platinum and VIP options.

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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Music and Concerts | What to know if you’re headed to the Minnesota…

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Music and concerts, music and concerts | what to know if you’re headed to the minnesota yacht club festival, gwen stefani, alanis morissette and red hot chili peppers are headlining.

For the first time in a dozen years, St. Paul’s Harriet Island Regional Park will host a major rock and pop music festival, dubbed the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival, on Friday and Saturday.

Headlined by Gwen Stefani, Alanis Morissette and Red Hot Chili Peppers, the festival (which despite its name has nothing to do with yacht rock) is promoted by C3 Presents, an Austin, Texas, company that’s also behind Austin City Limits Music Festival, Voodoo Music + Arts Experience and the modern-day Lollapalooza. C3 was the largest independent promoter in the world until Live Nation bought a controlling stake in the company in 2014.

Organizers expect to attract more than 30,000 concertgoers each day.

While the Irish Fair of Minnesota calls Harriet Island home each August, music festivals have had a rough go on the site. The original Lollapalooza (back when it was a traveling festival) landed on the site in 1991, 1992 and 1994, but flooding forced the fest to move to the late St. Paul Civic Center in 1993.

Live Nation attempted to establish a new annual event, the River’s Edge Music Festival, in 2012. Despite big-name headliners Tool and the Dave Matthews Band, the festival didn’t attract enough paying customers to convince the concert promoting giant to return for a second year.

Here’s what folks headed to the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival need to know:

As of Wednesday afternoon, tickets were still available at a number of price points, starting at $135 for one day general admission (or $255 for two days) all the way up to platinum tickets for $925 ($1,395 for two days), which include a number of perks including free food and drinks, front-of-stage viewing and access to an air-conditioned lounge. See minnesotayachtclubfestival.com for details.

Many of the general admission and general admission plus tickets are sold out, but there are verified resale tickets available, some at lower prices than face value.

Getting there

There are two entrances to the festival. The main entrance is at Harriet Island Boulevard and South Wabasha Street, while the west entrance is on West Water Street between Bidwell Street and Plato Boulevard.

There is no on-site parking at the festival, but its website lists numerous downtown St. Paul parking lots that are a 10- to 16-minute walk from the site. Several Metro Transit buses stop a half-mile from Harriet Island. The rideshare drop off is at 49 E. Fillmore Ave. The festival promises “ample bike parking” located near the two entrances.

What is allowed on site

Feel free to bring: Small clutch purses and fanny packs (6” x 9” or smaller) with no more than one pocket, all other bags must be clear and smaller than 12” x 6” x 12”, empty hydration packs and reusable water bottles, strollers, frisbees, binoculars, blankets, basic cameras (no detachable lenses or other accessories), sunscreen in non-aerosol containers (3.4 ounces or less), personal-sized hand sanitizer and factory sealed Naloxone/Narcan kits.

What isn’t allowed

Pretty much everything you would think, including outside food and beverage, coolers, aerosol containers, umbrellas, chairs, wagons, skateboards, drones, fireworks and illegal substances.

Concertgoers must wear securely fastened wristbands that are available at the box office. Wristbands can be activated online to add an emergency contact and to use for cashless transactions (with a pin number). Wristbands that are damaged, lost or stolen can be replaced by the original purchaser one time only for $20. Patrons can leave and reenter at will up until 7 p.m. each day.

There is a guest services tent that has earplugs and a lost and found. Free hydration stations are located throughout the site. Lockers are available to rent for $25 each day or $48.50 for both.

Who is playing

Doors open at 12:30 p.m. There are two stages, with staggered performances that do not overlap.

Friday’s schedule includes: Gully Boys (1-2 p.m.), Harbor and Home (2-2:40 p.m.), Morgan Wade (2:40-3:40), Michigander (3:40-4:40), Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (4:40-5:40), Durry (5:40-6:40), Gwen Stefani (6:45-8), The Head and the Heart (8-9) and Alanis Morissette (9-10:30).

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