The Amadea, upon its seizure in Fiji. Photo credit: Courtesy, Department of Justice
A $300 million yacht that federal authorities say was seized from a Russian oligarch arrived Monday in San Diego.
The Amadea, a 348-foot luxury vessel, was owned by Suleiman Kerimov, according to the Department of Justice, which described Kerimov as “a sanctioned oligarch and beneficiary of Russian corruption.”
The U.S. government sanctioned Kerimov, 56, in 2018 for alleged money laundering and failure to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes related to the purchase of villas.
The vessel will remain in the government’s possession until it is sold.
“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.
The seizure was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency effort dedicated to enforcing sanctions, export controls and economic countermeasures that the U.S., along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.
After a mutual legal assistance request from U.S. authorities, federal officials said in May, Fijian law enforcement executed a domestic seizure warrant for the Amadea granted from a local court.
– City News Service and staff reports