$922,000 per month
US taxpayers pay for seized luxury yacht
March 7, 2024, 12:14 p.m
Almost two years ago, the FBI seized a 100-meter-long yacht and anchored it in San Diego Harbor. Since then, taxpayers there have spent nearly $20 million maintaining the boat. A possible sale is ongoing.
A luxury yacht confiscated in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is causing anger in the USA. The “Amadea”, built in Germany and moored in Fiji, has been in the port of the US west coast metropolis of San Diego since the end of June 2022 – and costs US taxpayers the equivalent of almost 850,000 euros (922,000 US dollars) every month, as the broadcaster CNN cited reported on court documents. Prosecutors are now calling for the superyacht to be sold. US authorities suspect it belongs to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
According to CNN, the US Marshal Service, a department of the Justice Department, recently estimated the current value of the 106-meter-long yacht at around 211 million euros (around around 230 million dollars). However, a judicial decision on a possible sale could take months, the US broadcaster continued. During this time the bills would have to continue to be paid. The monthly costs therefore include maintenance, insurance and the dry dock fee.
Seized in Fiji Islands
Kerimov is considered a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has been on the sanctions list in the USA for money laundering since 2018, but was also sanctioned by the European Union and other countries in the wake of the Ukraine war. The official owner is a company called Millemarin Investment Ltd. registered. However, there were different statements about who was behind it. Millemarin’s lawyers say the ship belongs to Russian billionaire Eduard Chudainatov, who is not on the sanctions lists.
Because of the initially unclear ownership situation, the luxury yacht had been stranded in Fiji since mid-April 2022 – after an 18-day trip from Mexico across the Pacific – and was then confiscated by local authorities and the US Federal Police (FBI). U.S. Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at the time that the department was “keep an eye on any yacht purchased with dirty money.” Russian oligarchs couldn’t even hide in the remotest corners of the world.