For nearly three years, a $325 million, 106-meter super yacht -- and the issue of who actually owns it -- has been the subject of a brass-knuckles legal fight playing out in U.S. federal court.
The U.S. government says the Amadea -- which boasts a helicopter pad, a pool, a jacuzzi, and “a stunning winter garden on the sun deck” -- belongs to Suleiman Kerimov, a politically connected Russian billionaire who was sanctioned in 2018 in response to Russia’s “malign activity around the globe.”
For that reason, the Justice Department seized the boat, impounding it first in Fiji, then bringing it to San Diego, California, where it has been docked while also racking up millions in taxpayer-funded maintenance and storage fees.
However, lawyers for Eduard Khudainatov, a former top executive of the Russian state oil giant Rosneft, argued that he was the true owner and that the U.S. government’s case was flimsy and not backed up by evidence.
On March 18, a U.S. federal court in Manhattan gave final approval for the Justice Department to auction the Amadea, days after throwing out Khudainatov’s claims to ownership.
Adding a twist to the odyssey of the Amadea: Khudainatov is linked to another luxury yacht that corruption activists say in fact belongs to President Vladimir Putin.
Confused? Here’s what you need to know.
The Sanctioned Billionaire
The United States and the European Union started sanctioning Russian oligarchs and Kremlin insiders in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.
U.S. government findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election spurred more sanctions.
Kerimov, who made his billions in oil trading and major holdings in state gas giant Gazprom, was targeted in both rounds of sanctions.
In the wake of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian elites sought to shuffle assets and properties out of sight of Western authorities who sought to tighten sanctions further. That May, authorities in the Pacific island of Fiji impounded the Amadea on a U.S. warrant, which charged that the boat was in fact owned by Kerimov.
The boat was later driven across the Pacific Ocean and docked in a San Diego shipyard.
U.S. authorities have been seeking court authorization to fully seize the vessel and then, in all likelihood, sell it.
Whose Boat Is It Anyway? And Who Is Khudainatov?
Lawyers challenged the U.S. seizure order, saying Khudainatov, not Kerimov, is the ultimate owner of the Amadea.
In court documents, the U.S. government did not dispute Khudainatov’s links to the vessel, but citing an FBI affidavit, they argued Khudainatov was a proxy used to conceal Kerimov’s ownership.
A former top executive at Rosneft, Khudainatov has long been associated with the company’s CEO Igor Sechin, a former intelligence agent who is believed to be in Putin’s inner circle. He’s been sanctioned by the European Union but not the United States.
In 2023, Forbes estimated Khudainatov was worth “at least $2 billion,” and it attributed the wealth to “decades-long relationships with Putin and Sechin.”
The Amadea isn’t the only luxury motor yacht he’s linked to.
Evidence attached to the FBI affidavit in the Fiji proceedings showed that Amadea was managed by Imperial Yachts, a Monaco-based company that was hit with sanctions last year.
The company “provides yacht-related services to Russia’s elites, including those in President Putin’s inner circle,” the Treasury Department said. The Russian CEO of Imperial Yachts, Yevgeny Kochman, was also sanctioned.
Imperial Yachts oversaw the construction of the 140-meter, $700 million Scheherazade, which activists from the late anti-corruption crusader Aleksei Navalny claimed belonged to Putin.
The Scheherazade was seized in Italy in May 2022. At the time, the Scheherazade was owned by a Khudainatov-controlled company in the Marshall Islands.
Khudainatov has claimed he also owns the Crescent, a 135-meter super yacht that has been described as the Scheherazade’s “sister ship.” That yacht, which was seized in Spain in March 2022, is alleged to belong to Sechin.
Navalny’s team claimed to have identified multiple crew members as officers in Russia’s Federal Guard Service, which is responsible for Putin’s security.
An investigation by RFE/RL found that a senior Russian crew member on the Scheherazade previously worked for Imperial Yachts.
RFE/RL reporters investigating further ownership details of the Scheherazade in February 2024 found themselves surveilled by a drone and questioned by police at the Italian port of Marina di Carrara, where the yacht has been impounded for nearly three years amid an investigation into its ownership.
Khudainatov’s Defense
Khudainatov’s lawyers, who also hired a strategic communications firm to do public relations, fought the Amadea seizure order tooth-and-nail, gaining depositions from crew members and family members.
U.S. prosecutors, meanwhile, obtained depositions from other crew members, including an unnamed person who appears to be seeking a deal with the Justice Department in exchange for testimony.
Last year, prosecutors moved to question Khudainatov under oath and sought to conduct the deposition in the United States. Defense lawyers argued that Khudainatov might be arrested if he sets foot on U.S. territory, and proposed other locations, like Dubai.
In December, as the two sides quibbled about the timing, defense lawyers abruptly postponed it, saying Khudainatov had fallen ill with COVID-19 and had been hospitalized. Prosecutors retorted, citing an FBI agent’s statement accused Khudainatov of faking the illness and securing a fake doctor’s note to avoid deposition.
The judge then ordered Khudainatov to sit for his deposition in New York on January 17, which Khudainatov ultimately declined to attend.
On March 11, the judge found that Khudainatov’s excuses for not sitting for deposition were “not credible,” and he threw out his claim of ownership to the Amadea.
U.S. Judge Dale Ho then ordered forfeiture and auction on March 18.
Khudainatov’s counsel, Adam Ford, said they would appeal, and he warned any potential buyers if the auction does go through.
“This ruling is legally and factually unsound,” he said in a statement, saying it “set a dangerous precedent that property can be seized and disposed of without affording the rightful owner due process.”
“We are fully confident that this decision will not stand on appeal,” he said.
Hide And Seek
The fight over the yacht is part of US and Western efforts to try to squeeze Russian elites and members of Putin’s inner circle in response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The results have been mixed.
U.S. and European authorities have struggled to identify assets and track them across the vast global financial system, while Russian tycoons have used law firms and shell companies to evade Western sanctions and squirrel away property and companies.
Nonetheless, Western governments have managed to detain multiple yachts linked to Russia’s financial and political elite, including tycoons Aleksei Mordashev and Alisher Usmanov, as well as longtime Putin associate Gennady Timchenko.
