russian yachts seized for sale

Superyacht abandoned by a Russian fertilizer billionaire has a new secret owner, who got it for a huge discount

The Alfa Nero superyacht, which has been abandoned in the Caribbean for more than two years, has a new owner.

The 267-foot (81-meter) vessel, complete with a baby grand piano and a swimming pool that turns into a helipad, sold for $40 million last week, said Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US. He declined to name the buyer, citing a confidentiality agreement.

The sale marks the latest attempt to end the years-long Alfa Nero saga. A Russian oligarch abandoned the luxury yacht in Antigua in March 2022, after being sanctioned by the US Treasury. Then tech billionaire Eric Schmidt tried buying it at auction, only to  give up  when the sale became a legal quagmire. 

Meanwhile, the vessel sat in Antigua’s Falmouth Harbour being tended to by a skeleton crew and costing over a $100,000 a month to maintain.

At $40 million, the new Alfa Nero owner will end up paying far less than the $67.6 million that Schmidt, a former Google CEO, had offered last year. Sanctioned Russian fertilizer billionaire Andrey Guryev had originally bought the Alfa Nero in 2014 for $120 million, the US Treasury Department said — which Guryev denies. 

His daughter, Yulia Gurieva-Motlokhov, later stepped forward to claim ownership of the yacht, triggering a legal dispute.

“It’s not worth 40 million, it’s worth way more,” said Richard Higgins, a broker with Northrop & Johnson who represented the undisclosed buyer. “They needed to get the boat sold.”

Higgins said the new owner is European and will likely put the Alfa Nero on the charter market.

The Alfa Nero is among more than a dozen superyachts pinned down in ports around the globe after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought a series of economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs. Many of the vessels have been stuck in limbo amid costly legal disputes and racking up maintenance costs.

The Phi superyacht has been moored in London since 2022 while other vessels are stuck in Italy and Spain. There’s also the Amadea, a 348-foot ship with a lobster tank and hand-painted clouds on the dining-room ceiling, which was seized from its alleged oligarch owner in Fiji and now sits in California. Last month, a New York court denied the US government’s request to sell the Amadea, Voice of America  reported .

Alfa Nero’s new owner “is not included in the sanctions list of any country or institution,” Ambassador Sanders said.

The latest attempt to sell the Alfa Nero was brokered through a private contract, the port manager, Darwin Telemaque, said in a phone call. He also declined to name the buyer. Telemaque expects the proceeds will cover the millions of dollars in port fees the Alfa Nero has racked up.

“I am very happy that the ship is no longer the responsibility of the people and the government of Antigua and Barbuda,” he said. 

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Amadea, a superyacht, docked at the Port of Everett on Monday, April 29, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

How did a Russian oligarch’s seized superyacht end up in Everett?

Worth more than $300 million, the Amadea could soon be up for sale. But first, it came to Everett on Monday.

• Monday, April 29, 2024 1:44pm
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Watch CBS News

Superyacht seized by U.S. from Russian billionaire arrives in San Diego Bay

June 27, 2022 / 3:40 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A $325 million superyacht seized by the United States from a sanctioned Russian oligarch arrived in San Diego Bay on Monday.

The 348-foot-long (106-meter-long) Amadea flew an American flag as it sailed past the retired aircraft carrier USS Midway and under the Coronado Bridge.

"After a transpacific journey of over 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers), the Amadea has safely docked in a port within the United States, and will remain in the custody of the U.S. government, pending its anticipated forfeiture and sale," the Department of Justice said in a statement.

The FBI linked the Amadea to the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, and the vessel became a target of Task Force KleptoCapture, launched in March to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs to put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine. The U.S. said Kerimov secretly bought the vessel last year through various shell companies.

But Justice Department  officials had been stymied  by a legal effort to contest the American seizure warrant and by a yacht crew that refused to sail for the U.S. American officials won a legal battle in Fiji to take the Cayman Islands-flagged superyacht earlier this month. 

The Amadea made a stop in Honolulu Harbor en route to the U.S. mainland. The Amadea boasts  luxury features  such as a helipad, mosaic-tiled pool, lobster tank and a pizza oven, nestled in a décor of "delicate marble and stones" and "precious woods and delicate silk fabrics," according to court documents.

"The successful seizure and transport of Amadea would not have been possible without extraordinary cooperation from our foreign partners in the global effort to enforce U.S. sanctions imposed in response to Russia's unprovoked and unjustified war in Ukraine," the Justice Department said.

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$300 Million Yacht of Sanctioned Russian Oligarch Suleiman Kerimov Seized by Fiji at Request of United States

Fijian law enforcement executed a seizure warrant freezing the Motor Yacht Amadea (the Amadea), a 348-foot luxury vessel owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov. Fijian law enforcement, with the support and assistance of the FBI, acted pursuant to a mutual legal assistance request from the U.S. Department of Justice following issuance of a seizure warrant from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which found that the Amadea is subject to forfeiture based on probable cause of violations of U.S. law, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), money laundering and conspiracy.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Kerimov as part of a group of Russian oligarchs who profit from the Russian government through corruption and its malign activity around the globe, including the occupation of Crimea. In sanctioning Kerimov, the Treasury Department also cited Kerimov as an official of the Government of the Russian Federation and a member of the Russian Federation Counsel.

According to court documents, Kerimov owned the Amadea after his designation. Additionally, Kerimov and those acting on his behalf and for his benefit caused U.S. dollar transactions to be routed through U.S. financial institutions for the support and maintenance of the Amadea.

“This ruling should make clear that 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,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable those who facilitate the death and destruction we are witnessing in Ukraine.”

“Last month, I warned that the department had its eyes on every yacht purchased with dirty money,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “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.”

“This seizure demonstrates the FBI's persistence in pursuing sanctioned Russian oligarchs attempting to evade accountability for their role in jeopardizing our national security,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI, along with our international partners, will continue to seek out those individuals who contribute to the advancement of Russia’s malign activities and ensure they are brought to justice, regardless of where, or how, they attempt to hide.”

“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,” said Director Andrew Adams of Task Force KleptoCapture. “This Task Force will continue to bring to bear every resource available in this unprecedented, multinational series of enforcement actions against the Russian regime and its enablers.”

“The U.S. Marshals Service will continue to contribute our expertise in support of Task Force efforts to take possession of seized assets of Russian oligarchs during these forfeiture operations,” said Director Ronald L. Davis of the U.S. Marshals Service. 

The seizure was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls, and economic countermeasures that the United States, along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine. Announced by the Attorney General on March 2 and run out of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the task force will continue to leverage all of the department’s tools and authorities to combat efforts to evade or undermine the collective actions taken by the U.S. government in response to Russian military aggression.

Upon receipt of a mutual legal assistance request from the United States, Fijian authorities executed the request, obtaining a domestic seizure warrant from a Fijian court.

The Amadea, International Maritime Organization number 1012531, is believed to be worth approximately $300 million or more. The yacht is now in Lautoka, Fiji.

This matter is being investigated by the FBI’s New York Field Office with assistance from the FBI Legal Attaché Office in Canberra, Australia, the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, and the U.S. Embassy in Suva, Fiji.

Trial Attorney Andrew D. Beaty of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and Trial Attorney Joshua L. Sohn of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section are handling the seizure. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Marshals Service provided significant assistance. The United States thanks the Fijian authorities for their cooperation in this matter.

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Seized Russian Yachts May Soon Be on the Auction Block

Yachts don’t come cheap, even when you seize them—and that could mean the oligarchs’ favorite toys could end up with “for sale” signs.

Scott Bixby

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

The Department of Justice made a splash with the announcement that the task force created to seize the assets of Russia’s richest citizens had captured its first major acquisition : Tango, the 255-foot megayacht owned by sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

But the economics of keeping a vessel worth an estimated $90 million afloat as the Justice Department pursues charges of bank fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations against Vekselberg—and the legal particulars of seizing ill-gotten gains by alleged criminals—means that Tango could soon end up on the chopping block in order to pay off the phenomenal carrying costs for a vessel with room for 14 guests and 22 crewmembers.

“If the maintenance and storage become prohibitively expensive, the government can go to the court and say, ‘we want to sell this and reduce it to cash,’” said Stefan Cassella, a former federal prosecutor and an expert on asset forfeiture and money laundering law. Vekselberg “wouldn’t be able to object to the government selling it at auction for fair market value and turning it into a liquid asset. And that happens a lot.”

Last month, following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine, President Joe Biden vowed in his State of the Union address to join European allies to find and seize the yachts, luxury apartments, and private jets of billionaire oligarchs close to the Kremlin.

“We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” Biden said at the time.

The seizure of Tango is the first such capture of luxury assets by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Andrew Adams, director of the Department of Justice’s Task Force KleptoCapture, said upon the yacht’s seizure. But is far from the last.

“Today’s seizure of Viktor Vekselberg’s yacht, the Tango, in Spain is the result of an unprecedented multinational effort to enforce U.S. sanctions targeting those elites who have enabled Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine,” Adams said at the time . “For those who have tied their fortunes to a brutal and lawless regime, today’s action is a message that those nations dedicated to the rule of law are equally dedicated to separating the oligarchs from their tainted luxuries. This seizure is only the beginning of the Task Force’s work in this global effort to punish those who have and continue to support tyranny for financial gain.”

Federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the task force’s work, however, told The Daily Beast that the impressiveness of the haul is as much a complication as it is an accomplishment. The seizure of physical property suspected of being related to criminal enterprise—cars, homes, and jewels—is often a little more manageable than a 255-foot megayacht.

“A Bugatti can be kept under a tarp in a garage until a case is concluded,” one federal law enforcement official told The Daily Beast. “The same can’t be said of a yacht that’s the length of a football field.”

Tango, which according to Superyacht Times currently clocks in as the 189th-longest yacht in the world and features a private owner’s deck, a contra-flow swimming pool, an outdoor cinema and a massage parlor, is far from the most extravagant of the yachts that have been seized by international authorities since the implementation of sanctions against Kremlin-allied oligarchs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Dilbar, the world’s largest yacht by gross tonnage, was seized earlier this month by Germany. It features two helipads and the largest swimming pool yet installed on a yacht.

But even the comparatively unpretentious Tango will cost a small fortune to keep afloat. In the yachting world, the rule of thumb for the annual carrying costs of a crewed vessel is roughly 10 percent of its sticker price, with that percentage rising depending on the yacht’s size, sophistication, and whether it is currently at sea.

Megayachts have dozens of crew members for a reason—not just to serve guests daiquiris and change their sheets, but also to keep the vessel from falling apart. Some of the risks include salt damage to the hull and furnishings, sea water entering the fuel tanks causing “diesel bug” bacterial growth in the engine, barnacles, sun exposure, and even excrement from seagulls. Each can destroy a yacht in slow motion, which means that these freshly seized assets could be worthless by the time their owners’ cases have been adjudicated.

The majority of the yachts seized so far have been nabbed by foreign law enforcement agencies, many of which seem content to allow them to fall fallow in the meantime . But in the United States, the U.S. Marshals Service is often in charge of taking custody of seized assets, and is required by law to maintain them—even as the yacht remains moored at the Real Club Nautico in Palma, Mallorca.

“If the government does take it into its possession, then it is responsible for the storage and maintenance costs until there’s an interlocutory sale,” Cassella said.

Although sometimes the work is farmed out to a private contractor, the costs are often covered by an asset forfeiture fund, built up from the proceeds of seized goods—things like watches and furs, rather than bricks of cash and machine guns—being sold for their commercial value.

In practice, this can be achieved by requiring the owner of the seized property to fund the maintenance of their car, boat, or plane—or by using the proceeds of forfeited goods sold at auction to keep them in working order.

But in the case of Task Force KleptoCapture’s targets, sanctioned individuals can’t pay their crews or mooring fees as they fight to win their yachts back due to the restricted access of their own fortunes. This effectively prevents Vekselberg, worth an estimated $10 billion before the implementation of sanctions, from paying an estimated $4 million a year to keep Tango seaworthy—even if he wanted to.

And given that Vekselberg is overseas and has enormous resources at his disposal, the case, Cassella said, could stretch on for years—with the U.S. Marshals on the hook in the meantime.

“This could go on for a very long time,” said Cassella. “Forfeiture cases of this complexity, with this amount of money, could go on for five or 10 years.”

According to the Luxury Yacht Group, that could mean the government’s total carrying costs for Tango could stretch into the tens of millions —potentially even exceeding the yacht’s value.

The U.S. Marshals Service does have the option of putting the boat on the auction block, like a cocaine dealer’s slightly used Dodge Viper at a police auction. The money would be held in escrow until the resolution of Vekselberg’s case.

But the international superyacht market has tanked along with the rest of the luxury goods economy—rising fuel prices hit harder when it takes 202,000 liters of premium diesel to fill your tank—which means that would-be megayacht owners could end up scoring a major deal.

And Vekselberg, one State Department official familiar with the sanctions efforts quipped, could learn a critical lesson in luxury good ownership.

“If it floats, flies or fucks,” they said, “rent—don’t buy.”

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The U.S. seized Russian oligarchs' superyachts. Now, American taxpayers pay the price

Ayesha Rascoe

Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Stephanie Baker, senior writer at Bloomberg News, about the complications involved in seizing and maintaining superyachts owned by sanctioned Russian billionaires.

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Us gov’t looks to unload seized $300m russian superyacht over $600k in monthly upkeep.

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The US government asked a judge for permission to sell a $300 million Russian superyacht seized in 2022 — citing the fact that it’s been costing taxpayers $600,000 a month to maintain.

The hefty monthly tab includes $360,000 in payments to the 348-foot vessel’s crew, plus $75,000 for fuel and $165,000 in other maintenance, like waste removal and food, according to court papers filed by the US in Manhattan on Friday obtained by Bloomberg .

The superyacht, called Amadea, reportedly belongs to Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, an alleged money launderer sanctioned by the US in 2018 as one of several oligarchs who profited from the Kremlin “through corruption and its malign activities around the globe, including the occupation of Crimea,” according to the Justice Department.

Kerimov, 57, is worth $9.1 billion, according to Bloomberg’s calculations, which he built making hefty bets on Russian companies across a variety of industries after the fall of the Soviet Union, the outlet reported.

Amadea was seized at the request of the US government in Fiji in April 2022 , though the costs it has incurred since then shouldn’t have to be paid by the American public while the court considers whether to order forfeiture of the vessel, the government said in its court filing, per Bloomberg.

The $600,000-a-month bill is “far from modest,” the DOJ added.

Authorities are also due to pay Amadea’s $1.7 million annual iinsurance bill this month, according to Bloomberg, and the vessel is scheduled to go into dry dock for repairs in March.

Though the DOJ won’t have to pay monthly maintenance costs when Amadea is in dry dock, it expects to cough up $5.6 million to mend the yacht.

Amadea isn’t the only asset a Justice Department task force has targeted. The group has been seizing yachts, planes and luxury real estate of wealthy Russians who have been sanctioned in connection with the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.

In March, for example, US investigators asked a judge for permission to take over a Southampton  mansion along with two Park Avenue condos and property on Fisher Island in Florida worth a combined $75 million owned by sanctioned Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg.

A year prior, Vekselberg’s  $90 million, 255-foot superyacht , Tango, was seized in Spain at the request of the US government. 

The US has hoped that by seizing the property of wealthy Russian leaders, it will punish them for backing the war and influence their future behavior.

Should Amadea be allowed to go to sale, the court’s next hurdle is figureing out who actually owns the luxury yacht, according to Bloomberg.

Though the US says Kerimov is the owner, the American government has also accused him of violating sanctions by making payments that went to US companies or passed through the US financial system, Bloomberg reported.

Eduard Khudainatov, the ex-CEO of Russian state-owned oil producer Rosneft, has also claimed that he’s the actual owner of Amadea.

Khudainatov has been considered Vladimir Putin’s right-hand man, and was thrust into the limelight in May 2022, when US authorities identified him as the proxy owner of two seized superyachts: Amadea and the 459-foot Scheherazade, the $700 million luxury boat impounded by Italy.

Khudainatov, however, hasn’t been sanctioned by the US.

Lawyers for the obscure oligarch said in a statement that Khudainatov would reimburse the US for the cost of maintaining Amadea — which already totals about $20 million — if it is returned to him, according to Bloomberg.

The lawyers called the seizure “unlawful.”

While the US rejects Khudainatov’s claim, it says that he should pay for the maintenance until a decision is made about the vessel’s forfeiture, Bloomberg reported.

As long as Khudainatov isn’t paying, the government says it’s entitled to sell the boat.

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Sale of 93m seized superyacht Royal Romance cancelled

Ukrainian government officials have announced they have lost the right to sell the 92.5-metre superyacht Royal Romance . The yacht was seized in 2022 on the basis that the yacht's owner was a Russian national and sanctioned individual, and the Asset Recovery and Management Agency of Ukraine (ARMA) later announced they had taken ownership of the vessel and would be putting it on the auction block. 

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U.S. seizes mega yacht owned by oligarch with close ties to Putin

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain — The U.S. government seized a mega yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to the Russian president on Monday, the first in the government’s sanctions enforcement initiative to “seize and freeze” giant boats and other pricey assets of Russian elites .

Spain’s Civil Guard and U.S. federal agents descended on the yacht at the Marina Real in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Associated Press reporters at the scene saw police going in and out of the boat on Monday morning.

The seizure was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter. The people could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. A Spanish Civil Guard spokesman confirmed that officers from the Spanish police body and from the FBI were at the marina searching the vessel Monday morning and said further details would be released later.

A Civil Guard source told The Associated Press that the immobilized yacht is Tango, a 78-meter (254-feet) vessel that carries Cook Islands flag and that  Superyachtfan.com , a specialized website that tracks the world’s largest and most exclusive recreational boats, values at $120 million. The source was also not authorized to be named in media reports and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. All of Vekselberg’s assets in the U.S. are frozen and U.S. companies are forbidden from doing business with him and his entities.

The move is the first time the U.S. government has seized an oligarch’s yacht since Attorney General Merrick Garland and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen assembled a task force known as REPO — short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs — as an effort to enforce sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

Vekselberg has long had ties to the U.S. including a green card he once held and homes in New York and Connecticut. The Ukrainian-born businessman built his fortune by investing in the aluminum and oil industries in the post-Soviet era.

Vekselberg was also questioned in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and has worked closely with his American cousin, Andrew Intrater, who heads the New York investment management firm Columbus Nova.

Vekselberg and Intrater were thrust into the spotlight in the Mueller probe after the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels released a memo that claimed $500,000 in hush money was routed through Columbus Nova to a shell company set up by Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Columbus Nova denied that Vekselberg played any role in its payments to Cohen.

Vekselberg and Intrater met with Cohen at Trump Tower, one of several meetings between members of Trump’s inner circle and high-level Russians during the 2016 campaign and transition.

The 64-year-old mogul founded Renova Group more than three decades ago. The group holds the largest stake in United Co. Rusal, Russia’s biggest aluminum producer, among other investments.

Vekselberg was first sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018, and again in March of this year, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began. Vekselberg has also been sanctioned by authorities in the United Kingdom.

The U.S. Justice Department has also launched a sanctions enforcement task force known as KleptoCapture , which also aims to enforce financial restrictions in the U.S. imposed on Russia and its billionaires, working with the FBI, Treasury and other federal agencies. That task force will also target financial institutions and entities that have helped oligarchs move money to dodge sanctions.

The White House has said that many allied countries, including German, the U.K, France, Italy and others are involved in trying to collect and share information against Russians targeted for sanctions. In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden warned oligarch that the U.S. and European allies would “find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets.”

“We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” he said.

Wednesday’s capture is not the first time Spanish authorities have been involved in the seizure of a Russian oligarch’s superyacht. Officials there said they had seized a vessel valued at over $140 million owned by the CEO of a state-owned defense conglomerate and a close Putin ally.

French authorities have also seized superyachts, including one believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the U.S. sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Italy has also seized several yachts and other assets.

Italian financial police moved quickly seizing the superyacht “Lena” belonging to Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin, in the port of San Remo; the 65-meter (215-foot) “Lady M” owned by Alexei Mordashov in nearby Imperia, featuring six suites and estimated to be worth 65 million euros; as well as villas in Tuscany and Como, according to government officials.

Para reported from Madrid and Balsamo reported from Washington.

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$4 Billion Worth of Seized Russian-Owned Superyachts: This Is What That Looks Like

Following the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, a string of wow-worthy superyachts has been seized from Russian oligarchs allegedly associated with Vladimir Putin.

Take a look at these massive superyachts that have already been seized by local authorities earlier this year. All the vessels on this list are over 200 feet long, with the largest measuring in at over 500 feet! Their values range from $75 million all the way up to $750 million…that’s billions of dollars worth of superyachts, coming right up.

512’ Lürssen | DILBAR

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s colossal 512-foot superyacht looks more like a cruise ship. DILBAR was seized in Germany on March 2, 2022 by the German government. 

The Lürssen yacht was valued somewhere between $600-$750 million–talk about a hefty loss.

469’ Nobiskrug | SAILING YACHT A

The largest “sailboat” in the world, SAILING YACHT A (aptly named) had a similar fate.

It was seized in Italy from owner Andrey Melnichenko. The 469-foot Nobiskrug sailing yacht was valued at $577 million.

459’ Lürssen | SCHEHERAZADE

459-foot SCHEHERAZADE (say that three times fast) was seized in Italy in May. Since one helicopter landing pad isn’t enough, the Lürssen superyacht has two.

Valued at a cool $700 million, she was reportedly owned by former energy exec Eduard Khudainatov.

443’ Lürssen | CRESCENT

Another executive (this time of a Russian oil company), Igor Sechin had his 443-foot Lürssen megayacht seized in March in Spain. The seizure of CRESCENT made for one oily situation.

This massive piece of machinery was valued at $700 million, too.

348’ Lürssen | AMADEA

Fiji is a dream destination, but not so much for Suleiman Kerimov. His 348-foot Lürssen superyacht AMADEA was seized by local authorities in May 2022.

With an estimated $300 million value, that was one pricey visit to the island country.

304’ Feadship | ROYAL ROMANCE

The 304-foot Feadship superyacht linked to Viktor Medvedchuk was recently dethroned. ROYAL ROMANCE lost some of her royalty and a lot of her romance when she was seized in Croatia this past March.

Her highness was valued at $200 million.

282’ Oceano | AMORE VERO

2022 was not Igor Sechin’s year, with not one but two of his yachts on this list. The Russian billionaire’s 282-foot Oceano yacht was also seized earlier this year in France.

AMORE VERO is worth $120 million, adding just a bit to his total losses.

279’ Lürssen | VALERIE

A 279-foot Lürssen yacht was seized in Spain in March 2022. The impressive vessel was linked to Russian executive Sergei Chemezov.

VALERIE was valued at $140 million

255’ Feadship | TANGO

255-foot TANGO met her match when she, too, was seized in Spain in April. The Feadship yacht was tied to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

This dancing queen was valued at $90 million.

236’ Dunya | AXIOMA

Gibraltar was the location of the seizure of AXIOMA, a stunning 236-foot Dunya yacht. The vessel was linked to Russian “businessman” Dmitry Pumpyansky.

Her value was estimated to be $75 million.

The string of spectacular superyachts seized from Russian oligarchs is a long one. Billions of dollars worth of these beauties have been taken since the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

In the market for a superyacht of your own? Explore our featured yachts for sale.

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Inside The 150 Frozen Homes, Yachts And Jets Of Sanctioned Russian Oligarchs

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Viktor Vekselberg's Tango yacht, which was seized by the U.S.

Western countries have frozen or seized at least $9 billion worth of luxury real estate, superyachts and private jets belonging to Russian billionaires since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It hasn’t made much of a difference to their fortunes.

On a cloudy morning in early April 2022, agents from the FBI and Spain's Guardia Civil police boarded a 255-foot superyacht named Tango moored at a marina in Palma, on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. The yacht, belonging to aluminum baron Viktor Vekselberg , had been sitting in the dock for two months after arriving from Turkey in late January.

Hours after the police raid, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in a televised statement that the $90 million yacht had been seized at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. "We will now seek to have the vessel forfeited as the proceeds of a crime," he said at the time.

According to the seizure warrant —which cited Forbes' reporting on superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs —Vekselberg had used shell companies to hide his ownership of Tango and used U.S. banks to pay for the yacht's maintenance, evading sanctions placed on him in 2018.

It was a watershed moment, marking the first time that Western authorities had outright seized a Russian oligarch’s assets. "This [was] a historical event,” says Viktor Winkler, a sanctions lawyer and former head of global sanctions standards at German bank Commerzbank. "[Vekselberg] was already sanctioned in 2018, and that made him one of the few people where there was enough time for him to do something, like evade sanctions, and for the authorities to investigate."

In the days after Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Western countries began sanctioning dozens of Russian oligarchs and billionaires. From Fiji to France, authorities detained yachts and aircraft and ordered a freeze on homes that prevented sanctioned Russian oligarchs from visiting, selling or paying for the upkeep of their prized possessions.

As of April 2023, Forbes estimates that Western countries have frozen or seized at least 15 billionaire-owned yachts, 11 jets and helicopters and 124 homes worth a total of $9 billion. That’s small change when compared to the collective $310 billion fortune of the 46 sanctioned Russian and Russian-born billionaires on Forbes’ 2023 World’s Billionaires list.

That $9 billion includes assets that have been frozen, meaning the billionaire still owns them, but they can’t access or sell them or pay for their maintenance. Relatively few assets have been formally seized by authorities, which allows governments to take ownership and auction them. The U.S. seized Vekselberg’s Tango and Suleiman Kerimov ’s yacht Amadea plus nine homes in New York, Florida and Washington D.C. belonging to Vekselberg and Oleg Deripaska . Overall, the seized assets are worth an estimated $635 million—a drop in the bucket for people worth billions of dollars.

While sanctions haven’t hit oligarchs’ pocketbooks very much, they have had an impact by physically cutting them off from their luxury possessions in the West. When calculating the net worth of Russian billionaires, Forbes excluded the value of any homes, yachts or aircraft that have been frozen or seized.

“The likelihood of the West ever lifting the current sanctions is very, very low,” says Winkler, the sanctions lawyer. “The fact that the owner remains the owner is irrelevant, because the blocking of assets through sanctions prohibits not just him, but anybody from any use of the assets, no matter how small.”

The most high-profile targets of Western sanctions have been the oligarchs’ palatial superyachts. But detaining these vessels doesn’t come cheap. Many were held in Mediterranean and Caribbean ports in the weeks after the war began and have been slowly decaying ever since, racking up tens of millions of dollars in bills that governments need to pay to keep them afloat.

“None of the vessels affected actually have any financial value to their respective owners. Whether seized or merely detained, they can no longer function as a yacht,” says Benjamin Maltby, a partner at London-based law firm Keystone Law who focuses on superyachts. “They can’t be used as a form of transport or a platform for recreation and they can’t be sold by their owners. These are assets which are physically deteriorating.”

When it comes to bank accounts and stakes in companies, the value of the frozen assets is much larger. Within a month of the invasion, Forbes estimated that sanctions had hit more than $23 billion in assets belonging to Russian billionaires, including homes, yachts and jets. Last month, a joint statement from the U.S.-led Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force—which includes the U.S., U.K., the European Union and Japan—announced that it had blocked or frozen more than $58 billion in financial assets held by sanctioned Russians, including non-billionaires.

Despite those efforts to target their “ill-gotten gains,” Forbes found that Russian oligarchs are still extremely wealthy: 46 sanctioned billionaires have lost only an estimated $48 billion—about 14% of their collective net worth—since February 23, 2022, the day before the invasion.

In response to the sanctions, the billionaires have used their armies of lawyers to fight back. At least 20 sanctioned billionaires have filed lawsuits in the European Union’s General Court to seek removal of sanctions. Oleg Deripaska filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court last June over sanctions dating back to 2018, while steel tycoon Alexander Abramov sued Australia over the country’s sanctions the same month.

Even if they win their cases in Europe, it’s unlikely the sanctions will be lifted, according to sanctions lawyer Viktor Winkler. “In the past…[the EU] simply reissued the same sanctions designation merely with a different reasoning,” he says. “Sanctions lawyers call them 'narratives.’ As a matter of law, the EU is allowed to do that.”

No matter what happens in court, it’s clear that Western sanctions have failed at their stated goal: causing enough financial pain to convince the oligarchs to apply pressure on Vladimir Putin.

Here are the luxury homes, yachts and jets frozen and seized by Western countries:

REAL ESTATE

Number of properties: 124, total value: $5 billion.

Dmitry Mazepin's Rocky Ram villa in Sardinia, Italy, which has been frozen by Italian authorities.

Total value: $2.9 billion

Alisher Usmanov's Dilbar yacht, which has been frozen by German authorities.

Total value: $1.1 billion

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Roman Abramovich owns a Boeing 787, which is the subject of a U.S. seizure warrant.

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Who's Paying for Russian Oligarch's Seized Yacht in San Diego Bay?

The amadea, which superyachttimes.com called the 63rd largest yacht in the world, tied up monday at naval base san diego, in national city, by eric s. page and mari payton • published june 28, 2022 • updated on june 28, 2022 at 2:11 pm.

Many San Diegans who saw the news about the Amadea — the $325 million seized Russian oligarch's yacht that docked in San Diego on Monday — may be wondering: Who's paying for that?

Imagine how much the fuel costs to sail it more than 5,000 miles from Fiji, where it was seized earlier this month, to San Diego? A local marine fuel dock quoted the following prices, if you're wondering: $7.40 for gas, $7.35 for diesel. According to SuperYachtTimes.com, the Amadea has a 392,000-liter fuel tank. That works out to about 103,555 gallons, so it could cost $766,307 or so just to fill up.

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And then there are maintence costs on a 350-foot long yacht, which, you can be sure, are extensive and necessary — in fact, not undertaking such efforts can cause the vessel's value to decline if it deteriotes due to neglect.

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The Amadea carries a full complement of 36 crew, including the captain, according to SuperYachtTimes, but it won't need nearly that many once she tied up at Naval Base San Diego in National City. Nevertheless, someone will be monitoring the yacht and conducting the maintenance.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the yacht was bought with what it calls "dirty money," and, as such, some may be relieved to hear, will be sold to the highest bidder. Presumably, the associated post-seizure costs accrued after its seizure will be coming off the top of the sale price. Until then, the Amadea, which SuperYachtTimes called the 63rd larges yacht in the world, will resume in the custody of the U.S.

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Officials with the DOJ said the Amadea, which was seized in connection to the department's KleptoCapture campaign undertaken in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, was owned by Suleiman Kerimov a Russian billionaire.

After the yacht arrived in San Diego, John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor, told NBC 7 that he thinks the U.S. government hopes moves like the Amadea's seizure are efforts to apply pressure to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this month, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said, regarding the Amadea, “The department had its eyes on every yacht purchased with dirty money. 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.”

The court ruling represented a significant victory for the U.S. as it encounters obstacles in its attempts to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs around the world. While those efforts are welcomed by many who oppose the war in Ukraine, some actions have tested the limits of American jurisdiction abroad.

The United States wasted no time in taking command of the after a Fiji court ruled in its favor and sailed the ship away from the South Pacific nation just hours after the ruling.

"If you could say or somehow prove that this boat … that the oligarch had the money for this boat because he bribed Vladimir Putin, that is public corruption," Kirby said. "It’s a crime even when it takes place outside the United States. The United States can still act upon it."

According the website, the Amadea is not currently for sale, but that may soon change. Until then, you can "shop" for other eye-popping, wallet-busting boats here .

The Associated Press contributed to this report — Ed.

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Ukraine Loses Hard-Won Position Near Dnipro River in the South

Soldiers and military analysts said an operation to establish a foothold on the river’s Russian-controlled eastern bank was bloody and hard to justify.

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By Constant Méheut

Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

Ukrainian troops have lost a hard-won position on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, near the southern city of Kherson, after months of bloody fighting to hold on to a piece of land in what some Ukrainian soldiers and military analysts have described as a futile operation.

The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday night that fighting continued on the eastern bank but that most of the main positions in the village of Krynky, where its troops had gained a foothold, “were destroyed by intense, combined and prolonged enemy fire.” The statement came after several Ukrainian news media outlets reported that Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from the village, which now lies in ruins.

The operation to establish a bridgehead on the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnipro had been controversial from the start. Launched last fall, it was seen as an attempt to open a new front in the south that would disrupt Moscow’s logistics and tie down its troops in the area. But military analysts warned that the operation, which consisted of dangerous river crossings, was vulnerable in its logistics and unlikely to lead to rapid breakthroughs.

Ukrainian gains were limited to small pieces of land near the river, of which Krynky was the most notable.

As fighting to secure the position dragged on for months, Ukrainian soldiers involved in the operation complained that it was brutal and senseless . Soldiers crossing the river on boats were easy targets for Russian drones and mortars. Once they landed on the eastern bank, they had nowhere to hide because the bombed-out terrain had been reduced to a mass of mud and flattened houses.

“From a military point of view, I find it difficult to find some grounds for this operation,” said Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group. “Whatever the initial goals of the operation were, they have most likely not been met.”

The Dnipro River divides the two armies in the south. Ukraine has controlled the western bank since the fall of 2022, when a successful counteroffensive drove the Russians out of the city of Kherson and pushed them across the river.

Ukrainian assaults on the eastern bank began about a year later. They were initially shrouded in secrecy, with small groups of soldiers harassing Russian forces in night raids, arriving from small boats at various points along the meandering river.

Officials remained tight-lipped about the fierce fighting until last November, when they announced that their troops had seized a sliver of land on the Russian-controlled bank, including Krynky. One of the goals of the operation appeared to draw Russian troops to the area and prevent them from being dispatched to other parts of the front where Moscow was on the offensive, such as in the east.

Oleksandr Kovalenko , a Ukrainian military analyst, said that Russia had concentrated tens of thousands of troops in the area to repel Ukrainian attacks. “Let’s imagine that this resource of 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers appeared in the Belgorod region, supplementing the northern troop groups,” he said, referring to Russia’s recent offensive in northeastern Ukraine. “Would the Russians then have been able to capture Vovchansk and Lyptsi completely? Yes.”

Vovchansk and Lyptsi are two towns in the north where fierce fighting has raged but which Russia has been unable to capture.

But holding on to Krynky also cost Ukraine many lives. Ukrainian soldiers said they were stuck for days in muddy terrain with little to no cover from Russian artillery, drones and airstrikes.

An article published on Wednesday by Slidstvo Info , an investigative Ukrainian news outlet, reported that at least 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed on the eastern bank or are missing. That figure could not be independently confirmed.

By winter, with casualties mounting and Ukraine failing to expand its presence on the eastern bank, Mr. Kastehelmi, of the Black Bird Group, said the operation had become “more politically motivated,” with the goal of showing that Ukraine could still be on the offensive, as doubts increased among Western allies that Kyiv could win the war.

Mr. Kastehelmi said Ukraine did not have the resources to sustain such an attritional fight for months. “It’s a fair question to ask if the operation should have been ended faster and if Ukrainian brigades could have been better used in other areas,” he said.

Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people. More about Constant Méheut

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Sale of former Ukrainian MP Medvedchuk's 92-metre yacht halted: Croatian court lifts arrest

T he District Court of Split has lifted the arrest of Viktor Medvedchuk's yacht, Royal Romance, raising concerns about the potential loss of the asset. Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian busnessman and pro-Russian politician, is also known for his connections to Putin, who is the godfather of his daughter.

Source: Yaroslav Zhelezniak, Deputy Chairman of the Financial Committee of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament), on Telegram

The National Asset Recovery and Management Agency of Ukraine (ARMA) is unable to sell Viktor Medvedchuk's seized yacht, Royal Romance, because the court in Croatia has lifted its arrest.

In June 2024, the Higher Criminal Court of Croatia decided to return the case to the District Court of Split and assigned a new judge to the matter.

Quote: "Moreover, Ukraine could potentially lose this asset entirely. The District Court of Split lifted the arrest on the yacht due to… the absence of an indictment in the criminal case from the Office of the Prosecutor General," noted Zhelezniak.

He also recalled that the yacht is valued at US$200 million. Zhelezniak says this is clearly a substantial amount for the budget and the military.

The Croatian court's decision stipulates that the conditions for applying temporary measures will be reviewed every three months.

"The delay in the criminal investigations against the Ukrainian traitor Viktor Medvedchuk has led to the lifting of the yacht’s arrest in one of the four cases, and ARMA is unable to enforce national court decisions regarding the sale of the vessel. Furthermore, this situation poses a risk that Ukraine could lose this valuable asset entirely," the published document states.

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