Seized yacht Amadea closer to auction

The US seeks ownership of Russian-owned superyacht Amadea.

The US Justice Department has moved closer to gaining the forfeiture of superyacht Amadea which was seized in 2022 because of alleged ownership by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.

A US judge ruled that the 2023 claim of Eduard Khudainatov, the former chief of Russian state oil and gas company Rosneft, to be the owner is false.

The 106m Lurssen superyacht could now be sold at auction.

Amadea was seized in Fiji in May 2022 and taken to San Diego as part of sanctions against Russian assets in response to the war in Ukraine.

Kerimov took beneficial ownership of Amadea, which is valued at about $300m, in September 2021 through a series of transfers between shell companies, said prosecutors in 2023.