{"id":2030,"date":"2025-10-16T22:21:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=2030"},"modified":"2025-10-16T22:21:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:21:37","slug":"seized-russian-superyacht-amadea-has-been-sold-but-its-not-smooth-sailing-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=2030","title":{"rendered":"Seized Russian superyacht Amadea has been sold \u2014 but it&#8217;s not smooth sailing yet"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"caas-list caas-list-bullet\">\n<li>The\u00a0superyacht Amadea\u00a0has been sold.<\/li>\n<li>The Justice Department said it seized the yacht from a Russian oligarch in 2022.<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s one caveat: The new owner may have to keep the prize out of international waters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A seized Russian superyacht has a new captain.<\/p>\n<p>The US government has auctioned off the 106-meter yacht Amadea, which it said was formerly owned by sanctioned\u00a0Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, a spokesperson for the United States Marshals Service confirmed to Business Insider.<\/p>\n<p>The new owner and the yacht&#8217;s price have not been disclosed. The sealed bid auction for the yacht closed on September 10.<\/p>\n<p>The yacht was seized by the federal government&#8217;s KleptoCapture task force in Fiji in 2022. It was believed to be worth at least $300 million at the time, according to a Department of Justice press release. A later appraisal put its value closer to $230 million, said court documents.<\/p>\n<p>Built by L\u00fcrssen \u2014\u00a0the same shipyard behind the\u00a0yachts of billionaires\u00a0like Sergey Brin and Barry Diller \u2014\u00a0Amadea boasts a suite of luxury features throughout its six decks, including an infinity pool and jacuzzi, a helicopter pad, two spas, and a private cinema. The interiors are ornate; there&#8217;s an elaborate piano, a gilded bar, golden elevators, and a lobster tank.<\/p>\n<p>The government has been eager to get Amadea off its hands, as the\u00a0yacht&#8217;s maintenance costs\u00a0\u2014\u00a0crew salaries, fuel, insurance, and more \u2014 reached nearly $1 million a month for US taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p>Congrats are in order for the new owner, though they are likely not out of choppy waters quite yet.<\/p>\n<p>Taking\u00a0control of a seized yacht is tricky, as true ownership can be contested.<\/p>\n<p>The Amadea&#8217;s ownership has already been called into question: After it was seized,\u00a0Russian billionaire Eduard Khudainatov\u00a0said he owned the yacht. Earlier this year, a judge ruled that Khudainatov was among &#8220;straw owners of the Amadea, who hold title to it for another party&#8221; and could not block its forfeiture to the US government.<\/p>\n<p>Khudainatov has appealed the decision. In a statement to Business Insider at the time of the auction, his lawyer, Adam Ford, said they &#8220;will continue the fight until we get our property back,&#8221; and called the auction &#8220;improper and premature.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even the most basic due diligence conducted by any rational potential purchaser bidding on the Amadea, a $230 million USD asset, will reveal the state of this litigation, and the risks associated with the purchase,&#8221; Ford wrote in a letter to the judge after the auction was announced.<\/p>\n<p>In the letter, Ford pointed to the\u00a0Alfa Nero, a seized yacht sold by the government of Antigua and Barbuda last year for the discounted price of $40 million. At one point, former\u00a0Google CEO Eric Schmidt\u00a0was set to purchase the yacht, though he backed out as legal disputes started piling up.<\/p>\n<p>All this may mean that the Amadea&#8217;s new owner may not want to stray far from US waters. Locals of Fort Lauderdale and San Diego, keep your eyes peeled.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on\u00a0Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0superyacht Amadea\u00a0has been sold. The Justice Department said it seized the yacht from a Russian oligarch in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-russia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2032,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030\/revisions\/2032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}