Despite Trump administration’s decision to cease enforcement actions against Russian oligarch’s criminal activity, superyacht “Amadea” can be sold at action, a Manhattan court ruled. The decision caps a years-long, dramatic story of the mysterious, luxury vessel—which featured conflicting-ownership claims, cross-ocean transfer and storage costs.
According to Mike Eckel at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the vessel was seized in Fiji in May 2022, and then brought back to the port in San Diego.
For nearly three years, a $325 million, 106-meter super yacht—and the issue of who actually owns it—has been the subject of a brass-knuckles legal fight playing out in U.S. federal court. The U.S. government says the Amadea… belongs to Suleiman Kerimov, a politically connected Russian billionaire who was sanctioned in 2018 in response to Russia’s ‘malign activity around the globe.’ For that reason, the Justice Department seized the boat, bringing it to San Diego, where it has been docked while also racking up millions in taxpayer-funded maintenance and storage fees.
Mike Eckel, Radio Free Europe
Attorneys for Eduard Khudainatov, a former Rosneft executive, argued in court that he was the legitimate owner and that the “U.S. governments case was flimsy” and lacked evidence.
On March 18, a U.S. federal court in Manhattan gave final approval for the Justice Department to auction the Amadea, days after throwing out Khudainatov’s claims to ownership. Adding a twist to the odyssey of the Amadea: Khudainatov is linked to another luxury yacht that corruption activists say in fact belongs to President Vladimir Putin.
Mike Eckel, Radio Free Europe
Khudainatov filed his appeal to the ruling on May 14th.
In explaining the administration’s decision to halt DOJ’s KleptoCapture program—which formed the legal basis to impound Amadea, among other ill-gotten assets—Pam Bondi stated in February that the effort needed “a fundamental change in mindset and approach” and that DOJ would be redeploying resources to “drug cartels.”
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in March that the U.S. government is “now an arm of the Kremlin.” That’s true of course, which is why I wish American news outlets could figure out a way to distinguish between actions taken by *actual* American government (for example, Biden‘s DOJ) vs. Trump’s first and second regimes—which were, yes, de facto puppets of Vladimir Putin.
Speaking of Vlad, having Donald sitting in the White House is a boon for the genocidal warmonger, who, instead of facing justice for atrocities in Ukraine (to say nothing of his fraudulently accumulated wealth, reportedly in the many billions) now gets a reprieve. And one we can only hope is temporary.
