russian oligarch yacht in san diego

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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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Superyacht feds say was seized from Russian oligarch sails into San Diego

The U.S. took control of the 348-foot boat in Fiji on May 5

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A $300 million superyacht the U.S. seized from a Russian oligarch in Fiji last month sailed into San Diego Bay on Monday morning.

Known as the Amadea, it is 348-feet long, and features a helipad and a swimming pool. The U.S. Department of Justice says it was owned by Suleiman Kerimov, a gold investor Forbes says is worth $14.5 billion .

It’s not clear how long the seized boat will stay in San Diego. Justice Department officials said the plan is to eventually sell it off.

“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 Department of Justice said in a statement Monday.

The U.S. sanctioned Kerimov in 2018, who was accused of money laundering related to the purchase of French villas. The European Union sanctioned him in March 2022, the Associated Press reported.

That same month, the Department of Justice created Task Force KleptoCapture to enforce the sanctions the U.S. and its foreign allies imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Two months later, on May 5, the Department of Justice announced it had seized the Amadea in Fiji. “Today’s action should make clear that there is no hiding place for the assets of individuals who violate U.S. law,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said that day.

After winning a court battle in Fiji — there was a dispute over the yacht’s actual owner — the U.S. sailed the ship from the South Pacific island on June 7 .

The superyacht stopped in Hawaii last week before heading into San Diego, sailing under the San-Diego-Coronado Bridge on its way to its berth Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Russian superyacht seized by US arrives in San Diego Bay

The super yacht Amadea passes San Diego as it comes into the San Diego Bay Monday, June 27, 2022, seen from Coronado, Calif. The $325 million superyacht seized by the United States from a sanctioned Russian oligarch arrived in San Diego Bay on Monday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

The super yacht Amadea passes the USS Midway Museum as it comes into the San Diego Bay Monday, June 27, 2022, seen from Coronado, Calif. The $325 million superyacht seized by the United States from a sanctioned Russian oligarch arrived in San Diego Bay on Monday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People look on from the super yacht Amadea as it arrives to the San Diego Bay Monday, June 27, 2022, seen from Coronado, Calif. The $325 million superyacht seized by the United States from a sanctioned Russian oligarch arrived in San Diego Bay on Monday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People stand on the deck of the super yacht Amadea as it is escorted by a Coast Guard vessel in the San Diego Bay Monday, June 27, 2022, seen from Coronado, Calif. The $325 million superyacht seized by the United States from a sanctioned Russian oligarch arrived in San Diego Bay on Monday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

The super yacht Amadea sails into the San Diego Bay Monday, June 27, 2022, seen from Coronado, Calif. The $325 million superyacht seized by the United States from a sanctioned Russian oligarch arrived in San Diego Bay on Monday.(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

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SAN DIEGO (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.

The Department of Justice said the Amadea was safely docked after a transpacific journey of over 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers) “and will remain in the custody of the U.S. government, pending its anticipated forfeiture and sale.”

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.

The U.S. 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 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.

Superyacht feds say was seized from Russian oligarch sails into San Diego

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A $300-million superyacht the U.S. seized from an alleged Russian oligarch in Fiji last month sailed into San Diego Bay on Monday morning.

Known as the Amadea, it is 348 feet long and features a helipad and swimming pool. The Department of Justice says it was owned by Suleiman Kerimov, a gold investor Forbes says is worth $14.5 billion .

It’s not clear how long the seized boat will stay in San Diego. Justice officials said the plan is to eventually sell it off.

“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 Department of Justice said in a statement Monday.

The U.S. sanctioned Kerimov, who was accused of money laundering related to the purchase of French villas, in 2018. The European Union sanctioned him in March 2022, the Associated Press reported.

That same month, the Department of Justice created Task Force KleptoCapture to enforce the sanctions the U.S. and its foreign allies imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Two months later, on May 5, the Department of Justice announced it had seized the Amadea in Fiji. “Today’s action should make clear that there is no hiding place for the assets of individuals who violate U.S. law,” Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland said that day.

After winning a court battle in Fiji — there was a dispute over the yacht’s actual owner — the U.S. sailed the ship from the South Pacific island on June 7 .

The superyacht stopped in Hawaii last week before heading into San Diego, sailing under the San Diego-Coronado Bridge on its way to its berth Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Federal government moves to confiscate mega yacht seized from alleged Russian oligarch

NATIONAL CITY, Calif. (KGTV) — After letting a mega yacht seized from an alleged Russian oligarch sit in San Diego bay for nearly 18 months, the federal government is now beginning the process of trying to officially confiscate it.

The Amadea was seized in Fiji and arrived in San Diego in June of 2022. According to court documents obtained by ABC 10News, federal prosecutors allege that the yacht is owned by Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian billionaire who was sanctioned following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Kerimov had the ship custom-built at a reported cost of $300 million dollars. It's considered one of the most lavish mega yachts in the world. "Even in our jaded industry, the yacht behind me is a superstar," said yacht expert Todd Roberts, President of Marine Group Boat Works, a ship yard in Chula Vista that works on mega yachts, though not contracted to work on the Amadea.

While the government may hope to win the case to confiscate the yacht and sell it, that may be a tricky proposition. “Nobody really wants international law to be designed in a way where countries can just sort of seize other country’s assets and actually confiscate them," explained University of San Diego law professor Craig Barkacs.

He says it is not legally clear that the United States has the right to confiscate the ship, even after seizing it. There are a number of United States and international laws that could be at play. He points out that the seizure of the ship for violating sanctions is more of a political decision than a legal one.

Even the ownership of Amadea by Kerimov is being challenged, with a counter lawsuit filed on behalf of another man who claims to be owner of the yacht. Barkacs says the court battle could last a long time. “The answer to your question is, I don’t want to sound too cynical here, but 'in perpetuity' comes to mind.”

Meanwhile, the government is stuck with the ship. Roberts says it must be maintained because letting it rot would lead to leaks and environmental damage to the bay. He estimates the cost of paying for fuel to power the generators, plus maintenance, and the salaries of the 20-30 person crew living full-time on the yacht to be between $4-6 million annually.

If it wins in court, the government could sell Amadea to recoup its money. But for now, it will remain parked in its spot next to Pepper Park.

“If the boat’s going to sit anywhere, it’s great that it’s here in San Diego," Roberts said.

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Feds Want to Auction Russian Oligarch’s Seized Yacht Docked in San Diego

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The U.S. government said it is spending more than $7 million a year to maintain a superyacht docked in San Diego that it seized from a sanctioned Russian oligarch, and urged a judge to let it auction the vessel before a dispute over its ownership is resolved.

Authorities in Fiji seized the 348-foot, $300 million Amadea in May 2022, pursuant to a U.S. warrant alleging it was owned by Suleiman Kerimov, a multibillionaire sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2014 and 2018 in response to Russia’s activities in Syria and Ukraine.

Efforts to auction the yacht are being challenged by Eduard Khudainatov, who led Russian state oil and gas company Rosneft from 2010 to 2013.

Khudainatov claims ownership of the Amadea, and has said it cannot not be forfeited because he has not been sanctioned.

In a court filing late on Friday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan told U.S. District Judge Dale Ho that the $600,000 average monthly maintenance bill for the Amadea has been “excessive,” justifying an auction. They also said talks to have Khudainatov pay for the yacht’s upkeep have broken down.

Prosecutors have said in previous court filings that Khudainatov is acting as the Amadea’s “straw owner” to disguise Kerimov’s role, and that maintenance payments are essential to preserving a yacht’s value.

Khudainatov has until Feb. 23 to reply to prosecutors’ request. In a statement, his lawyers said the motion to sell the vessel was “premature” and urged Ho to deny it until he “determines whether the seizure was unconstitutional.”

The seizure came as Washington ramped up sanctions enforcement against people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin to pressure Moscow to halt its war against Ukraine.

If the U.S. government succeeded in auctioning the yacht, it would likely eventually transfer sale proceeds to Ukraine.

Prosecutors have said Kerimov violated U.S. sanctions by making more than $1 million in maintenance payments for the Amadea through the U.S. financial system, making the vessel subject to forfeiture.

Kerimov and his family are worth $10.7 billion, according to Forbes magazine. He amassed his fortune through Russian gold miner Polyus, though he is no longer a shareholder.

US says it wants forfeiture of billionaire Russian oligarch's $300 mln superyacht

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Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis

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Reports on the New York federal courts. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.

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‘Alleged’ Fabergé Egg Found Aboard a Seized Russian Oligarch’s Yacht

The rare egg may not be authentic—but if it is, it could be worth millions

Daily Correspondent

When United States authorities seized a Russian oligarch’s  $300 million superyacht , they were surprised to discover what looked like a rare  Fabergé egg on board.

Lisa Monaco , the U.S. deputy attorney general, revealed the discovery while discussing sanctions against Russia at the  Aspen Security Forum last week.

“Let’s get to the juicy stuff: the yachts,” she said, per the  Guardian ’s Samantha Lock. “We recovered a Fabergé—or alleged Fabergé egg—on one of these [yachts], so it just gets more and more interesting.”

The yacht had recently sailed from Fiji and was docked in San Diego, Monaco added. She didn’t extrapolate much beyond that, but reporters did their own digging and believe she’s referring to the Amadea , which arrived in California in June after some  legal back and forth .

The  U.S. government says that Suleiman Kerimov, an oligarch in the gold business who is facing sanctions for his ties to Russian President  Vladimir Putin , owns the lavish, 348-foot-long vessel. The U.S. and other Western nations are  levying sanctions against Russian government officials and oligarchs in an attempt to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine .

It’s not clear yet if the Fabergé egg is authentic; but if it is, it could be worth millions. Created by jeweler  Peter Carl Fabergé between 1885 and 1917 in Russia, Fabergé eggs are opulently decorated, jewel-encrusted objets d’art . Historians believe  Alexander III commissioned the first elaborate egg as a gift for his wife in 1885—and the eggs quickly caught on with other members of the Russian royal family.

Historians believe  Fabergé made up to 69 eggs, a number that includes 50 “Imperial eggs” made for Russian royalty. Today, just 43 of the Imperial eggs are accounted for. And even though the location of a handful remains unknown, the likelihood that the newly discovered egg is real is “pretty small,” as Tony Faber, author of Fabergé’s Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire , tells  CNN ’s Kaitlan Collins.

“We’re down to the seven missing ones that have been basically missing since the [Russian] revolution,” he says.

The last time an Imperial egg randomly turned up was  in 2014 , when a man bought a gold egg for $14,000. He’d planned to melt it down for scrap metal, but first he decided to take it  to an expert , who identified it as a Fabergé egg worth an  estimated $33 million —and, fortunately, prevented its destruction.

In 2007, a Fabergé egg made headlines when it auctioned off for a record  $18.5 million .

U.S. officials have not yet released a photo of the egg, which has only added to the growing intrigue around the object. And there’s a good chance that Fabergé fans will be disappointed when the government finally does offer up visuals or more information about their find. As Nick Nicholson, a Russian art specialist, tells the  Art Newspaper ’s Sophia Kishkovsky, the piece may actually just be “a pendant egg worth a few thousand or an egg-shaped object like a bonbonniere or box.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.

US Seizes Super Yacht ‘Tango' Owned by Oligarch With Close Ties to Putin From Spanish Port

The doj alleges in a warrant the yacht should be forfeited because billionaire viktor vekselberg violated u.s. bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions statutes, by francisco ubilla, aritz parra and michael balsamo • published april 4, 2022.

The U.S. government on Monday seized a 254-foot yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a first by the Biden administration under sanctions imposed after the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine and targeting pricey assets of Russian elites.

Spain's Civil Guard and U.S. federal agents descended on the Tango 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.

The U.S. Justice Department, which obtained a warrant from a federal judge in Washington, alleges the yacht should be forfeited for violating U.S. bank fraud, money laundering and sanctions statutes.

Superyachtfan.com , a specialized website that tracks the world’s largest and most exclusive recreational boats, values the 78-meter vessel, which carries the Cook Islands flag, at $120 million.

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The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close Putin ally 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 United States are frozen and American companies are barred from doing business with him and his entities. The Ukrainian-born businessman built his fortune by investing in the aluminum and oil industries in the post-Soviet era.

Prosecutors allege Vekselberg bought the Tango in 2011 and has owned it since then, though they believe he has used shell companies to try to obfuscate his ownership and to avoid financial oversight.

They contend Vekselberg and those working for him continued to make payments using U.S. banks to support and maintain the yacht, even after sanctions were imposed on him in 2018. Those payments included a stay in December 2020 at a luxury water villa resort in the Maldives and fees to moor the yacht.

It's the first U.S. seizure of an oligarch’s yacht since U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. 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.

"It will not be the last,” Garland said in a statement. “Together, with our international partners, we will do everything possible to hold accountable any individual whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war.”

Vekselberg has long had ties to the U.S., including a green card he once held and homes in New York and Connecticut. He 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 that investigation after the lawyer 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 Trump's 2016 campaign and the transition before his presidency.

The 64-year-old Vekselberg 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 yacht sails under the Cook Islands flag and is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands administered by different societies in Panama, the Civil Guard said, “following a complicated financial and societal web to conceal its truthful ownership.”

Agents confiscated documents and computers inside the yacht that will be analyzed to confirm he real identity of the owner, it said.

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, the U.S. 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 Germany, the United Kingdom, 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 on March 1, President Joe Biden warned oligarchs 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.

Monday's capture is not the first time Spanish authorities have been involved in the seizure of a Russian oligarch’s superyacht. Officials 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 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 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.

Parra reported from Madrid and Balsamo reported from Washington.

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Taxpayers Stuck Paying the Bills for Oligarchs' Seized Yachts and Mansions

F ALMOUTH HARBOUR, Antigua and Barbuda—Two dozen armed police and five FBI agents fanned out across the harbor here early one morning last year. They raided the Alfa Nero, a 270-foot megayacht believed to be owned by Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, a Russian phosphates magnate sanctioned by the U.S. for links to President Vladimir Putin. 

Ever since, the $120 million yacht—nearly the length of a football field and outfitted with an infinity pool that transforms into a dance floor—has sat idle in this sleepy harbor. It’s a floating reminder of the West’s economic war against Russia and the difficulties in managing and offloading billions in seized Russian assets. It has also become a nightmare for this tiny country of 93,000. 

Taxpayers of this cash-strapped nation are currently paying $28,000 a week to maintain the stationary boat, including the salary of an Italian captain and $2,000 a day in diesel to keep its air conditioning running. If it turns off, mold will spread through the vessel within 48 hours, potentially damaging its hardwood interior and the Miro painting on board. A skeleton crew of six—having eaten through the boat’s supply of Champagne, lobsters and caviar—toils to ensure the vessel can one day be sailed away.

“You take thousand dollar bills, tear them up, and just keep going,” said Tom Paterson, the dock master of the marina, making a ripping up motion with his hands in the marina offices. 

Since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, dozens of governments launched an unprecedented effort to pressure Putin to end the war by going after his well-heeled cronies. The Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs Task Force, a multinational government group that coordinates on sanctions, reported in March that an estimated $58 billion of oligarchs’ assets, including yachts, mansions and investments, have been frozen or blocked because of their owners’ links to the Kremlin.  

The initial impulse to make life uncomfortable for Putin’s allies by blocking access to their wealth has evolved, as the war has dragged on, into moves to permanently confiscate their assets. Yet freezing an asset doesn’t immediately give authorities the right to take ownership and sell it. In many cases that comes only after complicated legal efforts to show those sanctioned people committed crimes, a process that could take months or years.

European countries have launched more than 300 criminal investigations against sanctioned Russians. The U.S. Justice Department has a team of 50 officials building criminal cases it hopes can rake in hundreds of millions of dollars by selling sanctioned Russian assets, which in turn can be handed over to help rebuild Ukraine. 

So far, the grand total from the assets delivered to Ukraine by the U.S. is just $5.4 million, the U.S. said. The U.K. hasn’t turned any frozen assets into funds. Neither has the European Union.

“The costs for Ukraine are huge, and morally I think it is a no-brainer that the party that inflicts that cost and a horrible war should pay,” said Anders Ahnlid, who heads the EU’s working group on frozen Russian assets. “But that has to be done under the law.” 

In practical terms, it is often taxpayers who are on the hook for eye-watering bills to maintain a fleet of high-end yachts and mansions that no one is allowed to use while sanctions remain in place. 

Efforts to bypass drawn-out legal proceedings in Western courts to sell the assets are coming up short. 

Earlier this year, the Antiguan government, arguing the Alfa Nero posed a risk to its harbor in case a hurricane sank it, passed new legislation and seized the ship outright. This summer it tried to sell the Alfa Nero to ex-Google chief executive Eric Schmidt for $67 million. But a company linked to Guryev launched a last-minute legal fight to block the sale, and Schmidt got cold feet, according to people familiar with the matter. The Antiguan government is now trying to line up a new buyer. 

There is a long legal path between freezing an asset, which bans the owner from using it, and confiscating the asset, which means the state can take ownership and sell it. Being sanctioned isn’t in itself a crime. So the state has to prove the sanctioned person both owns the asset, which is often held by a maze of shell companies, and broke a law, which can justify having it confiscated as proceeds of a crime. 

The U.S. is “leaving a lot of money on the table” from the asset seizures, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco testified before Congress in April. DOJ officials have asked Congress to broaden the government’s ability to turn over proceeds to Ukraine, including by expanding the range of seized assets they can transfer. 

The DOJ has seized two megayachts it says belong to sanctioned Russians and is in the process of trying to confiscate them, according to officials. One is the $300 million Amadea that U.S. taxpayers paid to have sailed to San Diego from Fiji. The other is the Tango, a $90 million yacht that U.S. authorities say is owned by Viktor Vekselberg, a sanctioned oligarch with close ties to Putin. Vekselberg is accused by the U.S. of tax fraud, money laundering and using fake documents and shell companies to avoid sanctions and hide his ownership of the Tango. 

U.S. investigators sometimes spend years building a case strong enough to take before a judge for a seizure warrant. That involves shoe-leather detective work such as poring over bank and property records and also mapping out connections and traveling the globe to talk to witnesses, said David Lim and Michael Khoo, DOJ officials leading Task Force KleptoCapture, which enforces sanctions on Russians.

“We still have to be able to meet our burden of proof in court,” Khoo said in an interview. A lot of the evidence and witnesses are overseas, “sometimes in jurisdictions that are not necessarily friendly to the U.S. And so it becomes a challenge to work across those borders,” he said.

In Italy, law-enforcement officials have seized at least four yachts and 20 luxury homes, as well as cars, artwork and other items since spring 2022, according to a list of frozen assets reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The Italian government last year earmarked €13.7 million, or about $14.8 million, to cover urgent maintenance costs of assets such as yachts and villas. The actual costs are much higher, Italian officials said. 

“Our problems are the yachts,” said an Italian official. “If the war continues…the running costs could potentially exceed their actual value.” 

As a rule of thumb, big yachts cost around 10% of their value a year to maintain, said Benjamin Maltby, a lawyer at Keystone Law, which specializes in advising on megayachts. Their hulls need to be regularly scraped and air-conditioning units run nearly round the clock. The crew also needs paying. So does insurance and rent in marinas. 

Forcing owners themselves to pay for their upkeep is complicated—the sanctioned parties aren’t allowed to use the financial system to transfer funds without special permission from governments, which can take months or years to obtain. Some European countries such as Spain allow the sanctioned owners to move funds to pay their maintenance costs. 

Selling a recently sanctioned boat is also hard, Maltby said. Many buyers don’t like the idea of a secondhand sanctioned boat for fear it might be reclaimed by its original owners when it enters a different legal jurisdiction. “A lot of these boats are going to be stuck in limbo,” he said. 

“There is a market for yachts. There is no market for moldering yachts,” said Andrew Adams, the former director of the KleptoCapture task force, to U.S. lawmakers recently. “We have to take care to make sure we’re maintaining that value.” 

The Scheherazade, one of the world’s biggest and most expensive yachts, was seized by Italy last year. But the €650 million boat has no publicly identified owner. Italy’s financial police have linked the Scheherazade to former Rosneft President Eduard Khudainatov but haven’t been able to confirm that he owns it. The anticorruption group of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has raised the possibility it could even belong to Putin himself. 

The 460-foot yacht is moored in the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara, where it is being refitted, work that began before it was seized. The company that officially owns the boat, registered in the Cayman Islands, is still covering those costs, according to people familiar with the boat’s current status. What will happen to the Scheherazade once the refurbishment is completed is unclear. 

Also stuck in Italy is Sailing Yacht A, a €530 million boat with running costs of around €1 million a month. It belongs to Andrey Melnichenko, a Russian coal and fertilizer billionaire. The 469-foot yacht has been stuck in the northern Italian port of Trieste since March 2022, when Melnichenko was sanctioned by the EU.

Like other oligarchs, Melnichenko is hoping to get his property back. Worried the yacht will suffer serious damage in the hands of the Italian state, Melnichenko has offered to pay for its upkeep, according to a person familiar with his legal moves. 

The EU is currently negotiating how to make sanctions evasion a crime in all its member states. That could eventually provide a broader basis for confiscating assets, but it would still require proof of active evasion. 

So far, the most high profile Russian boat confiscation was engineered not by a government but by J.P. Morgan. The U.S. bank successfully appealed to have the yacht Axioma sold at auction to pay off €20.5 million its owner, a sanctioned Russian oligarch, owed to the lender. The vessel, replete with a 3-D cinema, fetched $37.5 million at auction to an unnamed buyer in Gibraltar where it was impounded. JPMorgan said it received what it was owed. A court in Gibraltar still has to decide what to do with the remaining funds, according to a court official. 

On a recent day in Antigua, the Alfa Nero’s glossy black hull floated in a largely empty harbor. Most of the other yachts had left to avoid hurricane season. On the dock next to it two security guards sheltered under a canopy in front of a red sign reading “Property of The Antigua & Barbuda Government.” 

In the months after the invasion of Ukraine, the Alfa Nero had shut off its transponder to avoid being tracked but was ultimately located by U.S. officials. Guryev is the founder of PhosAgro, a leading Russian chemical company, and according to the U.S. government owns the second-largest estate in London after Buckingham Palace. Guryev is also sanctioned in the U.K. 

The Office of Foreign Assets Control, an enforcement arm of the U.S. Treasury, said the sanctioned Russian bought the yacht in 2014. Guryev had previously claimed the Alfa Nero wasn’t his but that he used it from time to time. The boat is owned by a company listed in the British Virgin Islands called Flying Dutchman, which in turn is managed by Opus Private, a fiduciary services company based in Guernsey, the island in the English Channel. Opus Private in turn represented a trust of which Guryev’s daughter is the beneficial owner, according to court filings in Antigua. 

The boat, which originally had a crew of 37, found itself in legal limbo. Its owners were barred from using the financial system to pay its bills or sail it away.

Opus said it had done its utmost to obtain the licenses needed to make payments for the vessel’s maintenance and to explain the position to the Antiguan government “to no avail.”

The yacht, meanwhile, spewed raw effluent into the harbor after its onboard sewage system broke. It also became uninsurable after the guarantees on fire extinguishers and other safety equipment expired and hurricane season approached. Most of the crew left because they weren’t being paid. A group of 26 crew subsequently filed a lawsuit in Antigua, which enforced the sanctions as part of a treaty with the U.S., asking for $2.2 million for unpaid wages from the boat’s unspecified owner, according to their lawyer. 

A skeleton crew stayed on board and kept the decks polished while bartering vintage bottles of wine stored in the ship for basic foodstuffs. The going rate: two bottles of wine for one tuna, according to the captain. 

In February those remaining crew finally mutinied, writing a letter to the Antiguan government saying, “We can no longer deal with this,” said Darwin Telemaque, chief executive officer of the Antigua port authority. 

Without these key crew members, no one would know how to keep the ship running or move it in case of a storm, he said. If the megayacht keeled over, it would block Falmouth Harbor, a key financial artery for the island. 

So the government decided to pass emergency legislation to seize the vessel, auction it, pay off maintenance expenses and keep the staff on board, retaining the surplus for the country’s treasury. The government of Antigua petitioned the U.S. Treasury to allow the boat to be sold, a move the U.S. took in June. 

The chance to buy a top-class yacht at a knockdown price caused a flurry of interest. Telemaque said he got WhatsApp messages from as far afield as Algeria. Schmidt, the former Google CEO, won the ensuing auction with a $67 million bid. 

A company linked to Guryev’s daughter filed a last-minute injunction to block the sale. The appeal was dismissed. The fiduciary company that controls the yacht then filed for a judicial review over the legality of Antigua’s sudden change of the law, according to filings. The case is ongoing. 

Schmidt refused to take ownership while the legal battle was unresolved and dropped out, according to people familiar with the matter. The Antiguan government was hit by another lawsuit, this one from Warren Halle, a U.S. real-estate magnate, who had the second-highest bid in the auction. Halle argued that since Schmidt hadn’t transferred the cash for the boat within a stipulated seven-day deadline, his bid should be disqualified. 

Andrea Maccaferri, the acting captain of the Alfa Nero, said he has no idea what will happen next. He compared life on board the stranded boat to a monastery. Lunch is served at noon, dinner at 6 p.m. sharp, cooked by a British chef. The captain said he constantly checks weather reports tracking hurricanes, which he fears could wreck the vessel. 

Deidra Cochrane, 28, an office assistant at the marina, said the Alfa Nero is a source of gossip on the bus she takes to work. People don’t generally believe the government will be able to sell it, and if it does, they see little benefit accruing to them, she said. “It’s a boat that creates a lot of scandal and opinion,” she said. 

At the Skullduggery bar and restaurant alongside the marina, a table of regulars drank vodka and fretted that Antigua’s decision to take on a Putin ally would alienate rich Russian customers who flock to the island in winter. “Don’t flick the tiger’s balls,” warned one. 

When he ventures out to St John’s, the capital of the two-island nation, Maccaferri never wears the red polo shirt bearing the logo of the Alfa Nero he wears in the marina, worried that a Russian agent may target him.

Whoever one day sails the Alfa Nero out of port, “I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a submarine with a red star waiting for it,” he said.

Write to Max Colchester at [email protected], José de Córdoba at [email protected] and Margherita Stancati at [email protected]