Superyacht Amadea (IMO 1012531), claimed by US authorities to be effectively owned by sanctioned Russian businessman Suleiman Kerimov, is currently moored in Everett, north of Seattle, Washington State, USA, waiting to be repaired, having arrived early last week to have some work done on it in a local shipyard.
The Amadea, built in 2016, was seized in Fiji in May 2022 at the request of US authorities. The Amadea had stopped its transponder shortly after the Russian attack in February 2022. It had made a brief stop in Antigua before heading to Fiji.
Eventually the Amadea made its way to Hawaii (arrived June 16th 2022) and then to San Diego, where it arrived on June 27th 2022 flying a USA flag (it had previously been registered in the Cayman Islands) and newly insured by American Club. It left San Diego on April 24th, arriving at Everett on April 29th.
The US authorities claim Kerimov is a significant figure in the Russian economy and that he had enabled Russian aggression in Ukraine and Syria.
One problem with seizing a vessel is that the responsibility of maintaining the value of the vessel shifts away from the alleged owner. The 106-metre-long. 4.402 gt Amadea, valued at $300m pre-invasion and probably worth at least $150m even as a vessel whose beneficial ownership is a matter of dispute, costs upwards of $5m to maintain, with small items such as fuel, maintenance, insurance and salary for the crew coming to about three-quarters of a million dollars a month (the cost during its period of impoundment in San Diego, according to federal court filings by the Marshals Service).
That appears to have come as something of a shock to the Justice Department, which in February told a federal court it intended to halt this “excessive … drain on the public purse” by auctioning off the Amadea (IMN February 15th 2024).
Unfortunately for the Justice Department, this has turned out to be a legal minefield. The US government, when requesting that the vessel be arrested in Fiji, said that Kerimov acquired the vessel in 2021.
Various parties based in Russia begged to differ. Legal moves were made challenging Amadea’s seizure on the grounds that Kerimov wasn’t the owner at all, but it was really owned by another, much less wealthy oligarch – namely the former head of Russian oil and gas giant Rosneft, Eduard Khudainatov, The US said that Khudainatov was a frontman, and not the true beneficial owner.
Nevertheless, Khudainatov is challenging the sale in the courts. In February the District Prosecutor said that talks to have Khudainatov pay for the yacht’s upkeep had broken down.
Prosecutors claim that Kerimov violated US sanctions by making more than $1m in maintenance payments for the Amadea through the US financial system, and that this sanctions violation made the vessel now docked in San Diego subject to forfeiture. That line of argument is not seen as clear-cut, with a number of defences available to the lawyers representing Khudainatov.
Another complication was that Amadea’s insurance policy required that servicing had to be carried out in dry dock. It was at this point that Everett Ship Repair, on the port’s East Waterway, entered the equation.
2016-vuilt, USA-flagged, 4,402 gt Amadea is owned by National Maritime Services Inc and managed by Fraser Yachts Florida Inc of Fort Lauderdale. It is entered with American Club. The seizure is currently a matter of legal dispute.