US closer to forfeiting seized yacht as judge denies ex-Rosneft chief’s claim

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By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Monday ruled that a former chief of Russian state oil and gas company Rosneft cannot plausibly claim to own a $300 million superyacht that U.S. authorities seized in 2022, in a win for the U.S. Department of Justice.

U.S. District Judge Dale Ho’s decision boosts the bid by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for a forfeiture of the 348-foot (106-meter) Amadea, which could be sold at auction.

Congress last year passed a law authorizing the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine to bolster its military defenses. 

Eduard Khudainatov, who led Rosneft from 2010 to 2013, sought to block a forfeiture by claiming ownership of the yacht in late 2023.

But prosecutors called Khudainatov a “straw owner” for sanctioned Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, and said Kerimov’s niece paid a company controlled by Khudainatov 225 million euros ($243.7 million) in 2021.

In an 80-page decision, Ho said most evidence suggested that although Khudainatov retained “bare title” to the yacht after September 2021, Kerimov was the true owner from then on.

“There is a sufficient basis to conclude that claimants (Khudainatov) are mere straw owners of the Amadea,” Ho wrote. “Claimants have not established under any standard that they had an interest in the Amadea other than bare title.”

Khudainatov’s lawyer Adam Ford said his client plans to appeal.

“The court improperly relied on speculative and unreliable assertions from the government while failing to give due weight to the extensive evidence we presented,” Ford said in a statement.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

TASK FORCE DISBANDED

Washington’s diplomatic stance toward Moscow has shifted substantially since U.S. authorities seized the Amadea in 2022.

The seizure came as former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration ramped up sanctions enforcement against people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to pressure Moscow to halt its war in Ukraine.

But after Republican President Donald Trump took office in January, Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded Task Force KleptoCapture, whose many actions targeting Russian oligarchs included high-profile cases such as the Amadea seizure.

Then on February 28, Trump assailed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as lacking gratitude for U.S. aid. Trump on March 3 paused military aid to Kyiv altogether.

Zelenskiy had enjoyed warm relations with Biden, and has said he could salvage his relationship with Trump. 

WHO OWNS THE AMADEA?

Kerimov and his family are worth $10.9 billion, according to Forbes magazine, after he amassed a fortune through Russian gold miner Polyus.

He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2014 and 2018 over Russian activities in Syria and Ukraine.

Prosecutors said he violated those sanctions by making more than $1 million of maintenance payments on the yacht. 

Khudainatov is not subject to U.S. sanctions. Ford has said prosecutors had no witnesses to establish that Kerimov owned the Amadea. 

“There’s simply nothing to connect Suleiman Kerimov to the vessel,” Ford said at a January 21 court hearing.

At the hearing, prosecutor Rachel Doud said that after the 2021 payment, Kerimov’s family had sole use of the Amadea, using it for Mediterranean and Caribbean trips, and had been planning major renovations. 

The Amadea is docked in San Diego, and the U.S. government is paying around $600,000 a month to maintain it, prosecutors have said.    

($1 = 0.9232 euros)

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Stephen Coates)