Antigua to challenge US judge in Alfa Nero sale row
Alfa Nero was seized by the Antigua government in 2022.
Antigua is set to challenge the jurisdiction of the US federal judge who granted permission for subpoenas to access the financial records of government officials including Prime Minister Gaston Browne over the sale of superyacht Alfa Nero.
Russian Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov is contesting the sale of the 82m Oceanco vessel, which was sold for $40m in July 2024 after two years in Falmouth Harbour following its seizure because of links to US-sanctioned Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev.
Guryeva-Motlokhov claims she is the rightful owner, not her father Guryev, despite Antigua authorities selling the yacht to a Turkish buyer through broker Northrop & Johnson. Lawyers for Guryeva-Motlokhov seeking the subpoenas claim the yacht was sold for more than the stated price.
“The question is simple: did the government really sell Alfa Nero for just $40m when all bids in the public auction were much higher than that – or is that just what was officially recorded,” said lawyer Martin De Luca of Boies, Schiller, Flexner in an email to Superyacht Investor.
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Lionel Hurst, Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister, told the Antigua Observer “there’s no doubt” there would be a challenge over the jurisdiction of the US judge. In a statement responding to a recent Associated Press (AP) article about the sale, the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda said the allegations were a “politically motivated attempt to malign the Prime Minister and his family”.
‘Best price’
Alfa Nero was seized, and then deemed abandoned, from Guryev in March 2022. The government of Antigua and Barbuda was forced to foot the ongoing bill, including crew wages, but the US Department of the Treasury lifted sanctions to allow it to be sold last year.
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt made the winning bid of $67m at auction, but Guryeva-Motlokhov then filed a lawsuit claiming it was hers. Schmidt withdrew but the case was dismissed and the yacht was given clean title, allowing a sale to proceed.
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At the time, Antigua officials insist they took the “best price they could” to remove a “major liability”.
The yacht posed “grave concerns” to Antigua’s economic, environmental and social well-being and officials were keen to remove the vessel from their jurisdiction, said Darwin Telemaque, CEO, Antigua and Barbuda Ports Authority.
“I was the one who negotiated the sale. Obviously, I had cabinet approval to proceed,” Telemaque told Superyacht Investor.
“We attempted to get the best price we could. We had a few offers on the table somewhere in the early 30s, mid 30s, nothing as high as the price we got which was $40m. Once we got that, it was ‘Let’s go’.
“We were looking for better but we got the best that was on offer at the time and we took it.”
The buyer was represented by Northrop & Johnson broker Richard Higgins, who said it came down to a “numbers game”.
“The buyer was willing to take the risk if the numbers were right. Luckily, they were,” he told Superyacht Investor.
