russian yacht owners

16 superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs

Western sanctions over moscow's invasion of ukraine led to many luxury vessels being detained in europe.

March 23, 2022

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Here are the superyachts seized from Russian oligarchs

As part of an international pressure campaign on Russia, authorities from around the world have seized more than a half-dozen superyachts belonging to billionaire oligarchs allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The yacht seizures since the Feb. 24 invasion are "just the beginning," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in March, as an international task force worked to identify further assets that can be seized or frozen.

“The Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable those who facilitate the death and destruction we are witnessing in Ukraine,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said of the ongoing efforts in May.

Here are the superyachts government officials have seized since Russia invaded Ukraine last month.

The Justice Department announced May 5 that the Fijian government had seized billionaire oligarch Suleiman Kerimov 's 348-foot yacht Amadea. The vessel, which is valued at more than $300 million , arrived in Fiji last month. Kerimov, who's worth an estimated $14 billion and has ties to the Russian government, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department over alleged money laundering in 2018.

Special features on the sprawling yacht include a helipad, infinity pool, a jacuzzi and multiple bars, according to a report in Boat International . It can accommodate 16 overnight guests in addition to 36 crew members, the report said.

In April, Spanish law-enforcement officials seized a 255-foot yacht called the Tango, which Justice Department says is owned by oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg is an aluminum magnate who the Treasury Department says has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Tango is worth an estimated $90 million, prosecutors said , and Vekselberg allegedly purchased it through shell companies. The 11-year-old yacht has seven staterooms and reportedly includes amenities such as a pool, gym and beauty salon .

Authorities in Italy seized a 215-foot superyacht called the Lady M this month. It's owned by Alexei Mordashov, Russia's richest businessman, and it’s estimated to be worth $27 million . The vessel, which requires a crew of 14, has six guest cabins , a pool and a gym.

But it pales in comparison to another of Mordashov's yachts, the $500 million Nord . The 464-foot vessel, which has two helipads and a waterfall and can accommodate 36 guests, was anchored this month in the Seychelles, where the U.S. and European Union sanctions don’t apply.

Italian officials also seized the 132-foot superyacht Lena, owned by the energy magnate Gennady Timchenko. Estimated to be worth $8 million, it has five cabins and can accommodate 10 guests.

SY A — short for Sailing Yacht A — is one of the world's largest superyachts. Valued at over $440 million, the 469-foot vessel, owned by the fertilizer magnate Andrey Melnichenko, has eight decks, multiple elevators, an underwater observation area and the world's tallest masts . It was seized in the Italian port of Trieste.

Authorities in Spain seized Sergei Chemezov's Valerie, a 279-foot superyacht that had been moored in Barcelona. Chemezov , a former KGB officer, heads the state conglomerate Rostec. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez touted the seizure on La Sexta television. “We are talking about a yacht that we estimate is worth $140 million,” Sanchez said.

Officials in France announced this month that they had seized the 289-foot Amore Vero, which was undergoing repairs in a shipyard near Marseille. When they arrived, authorities said, they found the crew preparing for an urgent departure, even though the repair work was scheduled to last through April. The $120 million boat, which has seven cabins , is linked to Igor Sechin, described by the U.S. Treasury Department as a close ally of Putin's.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

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Which Superyachts Belong To Which Russian Oligarchs? An Investigation

Stormy seas ahead...

News just broke that Italy has joined Germany and France’s crusade against superyachts , with Russian billionaire businessman Alexey Alexandrovits Mordaschov’s €65m “Lady M Yacht” being seized in Imperia (Liguria) – a crescent-shaped region in northern Italy – over the weekend in compliance with the recent EU sanctions.

Previous to this, The Dilbar, a 512-foot, $600 million yacht owned by sanctioned Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, being kept in Germany, had work being done on it halted in the wake of the sanctions, and French authorities  seized a massive yacht they say is linked to Igor Sechin , a Russian billionaire who previously served as Russia’s deputy Prime Minister (and who is apparently known in Russian business circles as “Darth Vader”), and who is CEO of state oil company Rosneft.

In light of all these seizures (and amidst the rumours that The Flying Fox belongs to Jeff Bezos, when it really doesn’t), we thought we’d come up with a list of which superyachts belong to which Russian billionaire. Get ready to feast your eyes.

Quite the fleet now https://t.co/XnQAwLODzJ — Joanna Pegum💙 #StandWithUkraine. Wear a Mask (@londoner_007) March 5, 2022

Lady M Yacht

Owned By: Alexey Alexandrovits Mordaschov

Price: $96 million AUD, or $75 million AUD (depending on which sour c e you believe)

Russian billionaire Alexey Alexandrovits Mordaschov owns the “Lady M Yacht” which was recently reportedly seized in Northern Italy. A 56 year old Russian billionaire businessman, Mordaschov is Russia’s richest man (even, apparantly, richer than Putin) and he has investments ranging from London-listed travel giant Tui to the ‘personal bank’ of senior Russian officials (according to The Guardian ). He is also the main shareholder and chairman of Severstal, Russia’s biggest steel and mining company.

The Lady M Yacht is 65 metres long, fits 12 guests in 6 cabins, 14 crew in 7 cabins, was built in 2013 by Palmer Johnson and was designed by Nuvolari Lenard. The Lady M Yacht has a top speed of 28 knots and a cruising speed of 16 knots. It has an annual running cost of $4-5 million USD ($5-6 million AUD). Lady M Yacht has a Norwegian-built Windy Dubois SR52 tender, called Little M, and naturally, a helipad.

Lady M Yacht was probably named after Mordaschov’s second wife. Media advisor to Italy’s Prime Minister, Ferdinando Giugliano, has said Lady M Yacht is 65 million euros ($96,369,809 AUD). Superyacht Fan however says its price is $55 million USD ( 37,103,056 euros), which equates to $75,019,285 AUD.

Lurssen Yacht Nord

Price: US$ 500 million (according to Super Yacht Fan)

This bad boy, built in 2020 (and delivered in 2021) also belongs to Russia’s richest man – Alexey Alexandrovits Mordaschov. The 141.6-metre Nord was designed with the intent to “cause strong emotions in every observer” via its sheer size and stunning design (by Italian design studio Nuvolari-Lenard, who gave Nord a bow design never before seen on a yacht. The Nord has an exhaust after treatment system, which hugely reduces nitrogen (by 97%) and noise.

Owned by: Kremlin-aligned Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov

Price: $648 million (reportedly)

The Dilbar, the world’s biggest yacht measured by interior volume, was launched in 2016 at an estimated US $648 million ($882,922,680 AUD). Five years later, its owner, Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, sent the vessel to a German shipyard for a retrofit reportedly costing another couple of hundred million dollars.

Forbes  recently reported that the Dilbar had been seized in Germany, working off the information of three sources. They since issued a correction stating that the Ministry for Economy and Innovation in Hamburg says the authorities have not seized the Dilbar, but rather work on the ship has been halted.

“Three sources had told  Forbes  it had been seized, but a representative for Usmanov cited the statement from the ministry in Hamburg to confirm that it had not. In its statement, the ministry elaborated that the German federal customs agency is the ‘responsible enforcement authority’ and would have to issue an export waiver for the yacht to leave, and that ‘no yacht leaves port that is not allowed to do so.’”

The Dilbar is 156 metres long, houses 36 guests in 18 cabins (and 84 crew in 40 cabins), was built by Lurssen and was designed by Espen Oeino. The Dilbar has a top speed of 22.5 knots and an annual running cost of $50-80 million USD.

Owned by: Igor Sechin

Price: $120 million USD

Built in 2013, with a length of 86 metres and the capacity to house 14 guests and 28 crew, Amore Vero was built by Oceanco and designed by Lobanov. It has a top speed of 18 knots and and annual running cost of $12 million.

According to the BBC , Amore Vero was seized by French authorities last Wednesday, when customs officers noticed that it was “taking steps to sail off urgently.”

“It arrived in in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat in January and had been due to stay there while being repaired until 1 April,” the BBC reports.

“It has also been reported that yachts belonging to five other Russian billionaires were heading to the Maldives, regarded as a safe home because it does not have an extradition treaty with the US,” ( BBC ).

Owned by: Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko

Price: €50 million euros ($74 million AUD)

Lena is owned by the founder of a Russia-based private investment group and close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin,  Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko. Media advisor to Italy’s Prime Minister, Ferdinando Giugliano, has said Lena was also recently frozen by authorities.

Owned by: Roman Abramovich

Price: £430 million ($770 million AUD)

The owner of Chelsea football club ( Abramovich is now trying to sell his shares Chelsea FC) Roman Abramovich also owns a superyacht called My Solaris. My Solaris is 137 metres long.

My Solaris  has a power and energy management system that is the most powerful of its kind ever installed on a yacht, according to  Superyacht Times . Roman Abramovich also owns a superyacht called the  Eclipse,  worth $700 million USD ($955 million AUD), Superyacht Times reports. He is reportedly not been sanctioned as of yet in the US or UK (but is still selling Chelsea in case he is).

Owned by: Vladimir Potanin

Price: Unknown

Vladimir Potanin is one of the richest men in Russia. He owns the  Nirvana,  a superyacht that can fit 12 guests and 18 crew, superyachtfan.com states.

Potanin also owns a yacht called Barbara. Potanin owns more than a third of Norilsk Nickel, a mining company, and has well as stakes in a pharmaceutical company and a ski resort.

Fortune reports: “On Wednesday [last week] he resigned as a trustee of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, according to the museum. Nirvana   is apparently currently in the Maldives, a country that, probably not coincidentally doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

Ocean Victory

Owned by: Viktor Rashnikov

Price: $300 million ( $408 million AUD)

Russian minerals and metals magnate Viktor Rashnikov owns ‘ Ocean Victory, ‘ a superyacht with an outlandish six pools, an underwater observation room, an internal helicopter hangar, and a helideck. Old mate has a net worth of nearly $10 billion and is No. 195 on  Forbes’  2021 billionaires list .

Owned by: Oleg Deripaska

Price: $65 million USD ($88 million AUD)

Oleg Deripaska, who has a net worth of almost $3 billion, is the founder of the Russian aluminium group Rusal. He owns Clio , which has a crew of 21. It comes with a boat called Sputnik, with a crew of 26. According to Fortune, Deripaska   has called for an end to the war in Ukraine. According to Reuters , Clio was docked in the Maldives as of last Thursday.

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From Russian oligarchs to tech CEOs, here's who owns 10 of the most expensive luxury yachts in the world

• Rising Sun superyacht is valued at $200 million and was purchased by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in 2004.
• Dilbar, seized by German police from a Russian oligarch, is valued at $735 million.
• These are 10 of the most expensive yachts in the world.

Rising Sun, valued at $200 million

Rising Sun superyacht is valued at $200 million and was purchased by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in 2004, according to Robb Report .

Rising Sun was later purchased again by Geffen Records executive David Geffen in 2010, according to Club Yacht . Geffen also owns another yacht called Pelorus and his yachts have been frequented by celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, according to the outlet.

Aviva, valued at $250 million

Aviva, valued at $250 million is 323 feet long and was built in 2017, according to Robb Report . The boat is so large that it has a paddle tennis court that doubles as an indoor soccer field in its interior, according to the outlet.

Andreas Hering, the project manager of the shipyard where the boat was constructed, told Boat International that "in three years" to "build a big yacht around a padel tennis court was the main brief, I guess."

Octopus, valued at $200 million

Octopus, a 414-foot superyacht owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is valued at $200 million, according to Robb Report.

The boat can accommodate 12 guests in 13 different cabins, according to Yacht Charter Fleet . The boat also has a dance floor and a movie theatre, according to the outlet.

Radiant, valued at $300 million

Radiant, a superyacht built for Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky in 2010, is 360 feet long and worth $300 million, according to Robb Report.

The boat can accommodate up to 20 guests and 44 crew and sports a beauty salon, gym, pool, and jacuzzi, according to the outlet.

Dubai, valued at $400 million

The "Dubai" megayacht, owned by United Arab Emirates Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is 532 feet long and is worth around $400 million, according to Architectural Digest .

Topaz, valued at $527 million

Topaz was built in Germany for the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to Dubai realtor LuxuryProperty.  

The nearly 500-foot yacht has a helicopter pad, gym, pool, and cinema hall, according to the realtor. Mansour owns Abu Dhabi United Group, which acquired Manchester United FC in 2008. 

Eclipse, valued at $600 million

The 533-foot Eclipse superyacht is valued at $600 million, according to the luxury magazine Robb Report .

The Eclipse is owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, one of 16 yachts and vessels that he owns, according to Forbes .

Azzam, valued at $600 million

Azzam is the largest and one of the fastest yachts in the world, according to Architectural Digest.

The boat took around three years to build and sits at 590 feet long and can travel at a speed of 35 miles per hour, according to the outlet.

Azzam is owned by the family of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was the Second President of the United Arab Emirates before his death in May 2022.

Al Said, valued at $600 million

The 508-foot Al Said sits in the Lürssen shipyard in Germany and was purchased by the former Sultan of Oman, Sultan Qaboos bin Said in 2008 for $600 million, according to Robb Report.

The yacht can travel up to 25 miles per hour and has a concert hall that can accommodate a 50-person orchestra, according to the outlet.

Dilbar, valued at $735 million

Dilbar, owned by Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, is the largest superyacht in the world and it's valued at $735 million.

In April 2022, the yacht was impounded in Germany . German federal police said they seized the yacht after an investigation into "offshore concealment" and determined that Usmanov's sister is the owner of the yacht. The boat remains at a shipyard in Hamburg, Germany.

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A 459-Foot Mystery in a Tuscan Port: Is It a Russian’s Superyacht?

As European authorities go after the luxury assets of oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, a superyacht cloaked in secrecy has come under investigation.

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By Michael Forsythe Gaia Pianigiani and David D. Kirkpatrick

From Germany’s North Sea ports to the French Riviera, open season has been declared on superyachts. Across Europe, authorities are hunting down luxury vessels tied to Russian oligarchs in the effort to inflict pain on President Vladimir V. Putin’s allies.

In Marina di Carrara, a small Italian town on the Tuscan coast, one of the world’s biggest, newest and most expensive superyachts — called the Scheherazade — is under scrutiny by the Italian police. Almost as long as a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, it dominates the waterfront.

The yacht, estimated by the website SuperYachtFan to cost about $700 million, has two helicopter decks and is studded with satellite domes. Inside, photos supplied by a former crew member show, is a swimming pool with a retractable cover that converts to a dance floor. Then there’s the fully equipped gym and the gold-plated fixtures in the bathrooms.

In the rarefied world of the biggest superyachts ( only 14 that are at least 140 meters, or 459 feet long), the Scheherazade is alone in that no likely owner has been publicly identified. That has spurred speculation that it could be a Middle Eastern billionaire or a superconnected Russian — even Mr. Putin.

The ship’s captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, a British national, denied that Mr. Putin owned or had ever been on the yacht. “I have never seen him. I have never met him,” he said. He added, in a phone interview from the yacht, that its owner was not on any sanctions list. He did not rule out that the person could be Russian, but declined to say more about the owner’s identity, citing a “watertight nondisclosure agreement.”

Captain Bennett-Pearce said that Italian investigators had come aboard on Friday and examined some of the ship’s certification documents. “They are looking hard. They are looking at every aspect,” he said. “This isn’t the local coppers coming down, these are men in dark suits.” A person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it, confirmed that the Italian financial police had opened an inquiry.

On Monday night, Captain Bennett-Pearce said he had “no choice” but to hand over documents revealing the owner’s identity to the Italian authorities. He said he would do so on Tuesday and had been told they would be handled with “confidentiality.”

“I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this will clear the vessel of all negative rumors and speculations,” he wrote in a message to a New York Times reporter.

The mystery about the ship’s owner arose because — even for the hyper-confidential world of superyachting — there is an unusual degree of secrecy surrounding this vessel. Not only do contractors and crew members sign nondisclosure agreements, as on many superyachts, but the ship also has a cover to hide its name plate. And when it first arrived at the port, workers erected a tall metallic barrier on the pier to partly obscure the yacht from onlookers. Some locals remarked that they had never seen anything like it for other boats.

In his State of the Union address last week, President Biden announced a Justice Department task force to go after oligarchs close to Mr. Putin and facing sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions have been imposed against hundreds of people, and the list keeps growing.

Last week, French authorities seized the yacht Amore Vero near Marseille as it was preparing to depart, claiming it was owned by a man on that list: Igor Sechin, the head of the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft. In Italy, police in Sanremo impounded Lena, a yacht belonging to Gennady Timchenko, a Putin friend who controls an oil exporting company. In nearby Imperia, police also impounded the Lady M, a yacht belonging to Alexei Mordashov, Russia’s richest man. The fate of the Dilbar, one of the world’s biggest yachts that the United States says belongs to the oligarch Alisher Usmanov, is unclear. It is in Hamburg, and German officials said the vessel could not leave without an export waiver, Bloomberg News reported .

Some of the biggest superyachts are owned by Russians who are not on the sanctions list. The world’s second-largest, Eclipse, which has a missile defense system and a mini submarine, is owned by Roman Abramovich, the billionaire who is selling his ownership stake in the British soccer club Chelsea. Andrey Melnichenko, a billionaire coal baron, owns Sailing Yacht A.

Determining the ownership of assets that the wealthy want to keep hidden is difficult, especially without a warrant, because they are often zealously guarded by private bankers and lawyers and tucked away in opaque shell companies in offshore secrecy havens. The Scheherazade is flagged in the Cayman Islands and its owner, Bielor Assets Ltd. , is registered in the Marshall Islands. The yacht’s management company, which Captain Bennett-Pearce says is also registered in the Cayman Islands, works from the ship and uses his rental villa in nearby Lucca as its address.

One trade website, which bills itself as “the global authority in superyachting,” claims that the vessel’s owner is “known to be a Middle Eastern billionaire.” The Scheherazade shares a name with the female storyteller in “The Arabian Nights,” and it made one brief foray into the Red Sea in September 2020, calling at the Egyptian port of Hurghada. But mostly it stays in Marina di Carrara, where it has been moored since last September.

Locals have their own theory about the ship’s ownership. Some have heard people onboard speaking Russian. And Scheherazade is also the title of a symphonic work by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

“Everybody calls it Putin’s yacht, but nobody knows whose it is,” said Ernesto Rossi, a retired clerk who was taking a walk along the marina’s promenade on Friday. “It’s a rumor that’s been going around for months.”

In Italy, the phrase “Putin’s yacht” has become shorthand for a mysterious and ultra-luxurious ship. It’s also a joke among the dozens of crew members, Captain Bennett-Pearce said. “I’ve heard the same rumors.”

Another, smaller vessel, the Graceful, has long been tied to the Russian president and is known as “Putin’s yacht.” It was tracked leaving Germany for the Russian port of Kaliningrad just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine. (U.S. government officials point out that Mr. Putin owns little outright; many of the luxurious homes or ships he uses are owned by oligarchs.)

Mr. Putin appears to have a penchant for big pleasure boats. During his time as Russia’s leader, he’s been photographed on yachts from Russia’s northern reaches to the Black Sea in the south. Last May, he and Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, took a cruise on a yacht at the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

The Scheherazade’s builder, Lurssen Group, whose website promises customers “complete confidentiality,” declined to comment about its ownership. Until June 2020, when the completed ship left the pier in Bremen, Germany, it had the code name “Lightning.” The same company built the even bigger superyacht the Dilbar. A similar gigantic yacht, code-named “Luminance,” is now being built at Lurssen, scheduled to be completed next year.

“Of course, all orders and projects of the Lurssen Group and its subsidiaries are treated in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations,” said Oliver Grun, a company spokesman.

About 70 percent of the Scheherazade’s crew is Russian, Captain Bennett-Pearce said. And during each of the past two summers, it has sailed to Sochi, the last time in early July 2021, according to MarineTraffic, a top maritime analytics provider. The ship’s construction was managed by Imperial Yachts, a company in Monaco that, Reuters reported , manages the Amore Vero, Mr. Sechin’s seized yacht. Nick Flashman, who oversees construction of large vessels at Imperial Yachts, declined to comment.

One former crew member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nondisclosure agreement, said that shipmates called it “Putin’s yacht.” The person said the ship was manned by an international crew during “boss off” times; when it was “boss on,” the crew was replaced by an all-Russian staff. In the weeks before the Scheherazade’s 2020 trip to the Black Sea, the foreign crew was dismissed, the person said.

The former crew member supplied photos of rosters of both international and Russian crew members. The Times reached out, via social media, phone or email, to at least 17 of them. Few responded.

One of the Russians said only that he had worked on the Scheherazade, citing a nondisclosure agreement. Another person said it would be dangerous to talk. One man denied serving on the vessel; another said he hadn’t worked at sea in 25 years.

Captain Bennett-Pearce said “categorically there is not a European crew that comes on and a Russian crew that comes on.” Many of the ship’s senior officers are from Britain, New Zealand and Spain. Many international crew members were dismissed in 2020, replaced by Russians who didn’t demand the high salaries and benefits that their predecessors had, the captain said. “It came down to economics,” he said.

Given the antipathy that people outside of Russia have toward Mr. Putin, if the Russian president really were the owner or principal user of the yacht, keeping non-Russian senior crew members like him on staff would make no sense, Captain Bennett-Pearce said.

“If there’s a European crew onboard it’s the biggest smoke and mirror and the biggest risk I’ve ever heard of,” he said.

Reporting was contributed by Dmitriy Khavin , Christoph Koettl , Julian E. Barnes , Jason Horowitz , Rebecca R. Ruiz and Eric Schmitt .

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the new task force announced by President Biden in his State of the Union address. He announced a Justice Department task force to pursue and seize the assets of oligarchs associated with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, not a joint task force with partners in Europe, which was previously announced.

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Michael Forsythe is a reporter on the investigations team. He was previously a correspondent in Hong Kong, covering the intersection of money and politics in China. He has also worked at Bloomberg News and is a United States Navy veteran. More about Michael Forsythe

Gaia Pianigiani is a reporter based in Italy for The New York Times.  More about Gaia Pianigiani

David D. Kirkpatrick is an investigative reporter based in New York and the author of “Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East.“ In 2020 he shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on covert Russian interference in other governments and as the Cairo bureau chief from 2011 to 2015 he led coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings. More about David D. Kirkpatrick

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On the morning of March 29 2022, Captain Guy Booth was working aboard Phi, a 192ft aquamarine superyacht moored in London’s Canary Wharf, when he heard a commotion below. Down on the pier a car had pulled up and Grant Shapps, then the UK’s transport secretary, emerged from the vehicle, followed by a retinue of aides.

“The first thing we saw was his entourage, several men and women carrying clipboards and make-up and hairbrushes,” says Booth. 

Shapps and his team then began to shoot a video for the social media network TikTok, where the government minister announced that Phi — built in 2021 by the famed Dutch luxury shipbuilder Royal Huisman and worth an estimated £38mn — “belongs to a Russian oligarch, friends of Putin”.

Booth watched in amazement as several television crews who’d been tipped off about the news arrived at the scene. “Shapps was positioning himself like a big game hunter, checking his best angle,” says Booth. “They took several takes.”

Next, a black cab arrived and three officers from the UK’s National Crime Agency got out. They climbed aboard and handed Booth a brown envelope. Inside was a government order: the boat he captained was now detained for being “owned by persons connected with Russia”.

Video description

A video shot by Grant Shapps in Canary Wharf, which shows the yacht Phi after the order to detain it in London

Today, Phi is still moored in the same spot in Canary Wharf outside an Indian restaurant, and with a small skeleton crew aboard. Each day, Booth, along with two engineers, a chief officer, a crew cook and two deck hands wake up on board and dutifully service the vessel.

Its once feted “infinite wine cellar” and seven-metre swimming pool lie unused. A lonely sun lounger sits out on deck, and the yacht’s Maltese maritime flag droops. Pink paint has been applied to its roof to protect it from the risk of dust from nearby building sites. 

Paul Dickie, a lawyer at Jaffa & Co who has represented Phi, claims the boat has been targeted by squatters. A notice on its side warns any would-be trespassers that they will be prosecuted “to the full extent of the law”.

For western nations, the yachts’ fate is a high-stakes test of the effectiveness of sanctions. For the lawyers who work for the owners, these seizures are acts of modern piracy

Phi’s owner, a Russian businessman called Sergei Naumenko, has repeatedly denied any connection to Vladimir Putin or the Russian state, and has twice unsuccessfully appealed to the English courts to have the yacht released. 

In May 2023 an English High Court judge said Shapps’s TikTok video claims that the owner had “close connections to Putin” were “excusable political hyperbole”. The Court of Appeal in March this year said it was “troubled” by Shapps’s “incorrect” statements. Both courts, however, upheld the UK detention order for the vessel.

After Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 prompted western governments to unleash an avalanche of economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs, there are now multiple superyachts like Phi trapped in ports around the world. Several are stuck in seemingly never-ending legal quagmires, with vastly expensive lawyers hired by often opaque offshore owners battling for their release.

Although tens of billions of dollars of Russian-owned luxury assets, including mansions, luxury cars and private jets, have been frozen, it was the symbolism of the seizure of the oligarch superyachts — vast, floating Versailles palaces often worth hundreds of millions of dollars — that captured the public’s imagination. Anti-corruption campaigners hoped at the time that these vessels would be auctioned off and the proceeds could be donated to Ukraine.

Yet more than two years on from the start of the war, the future of these superyachts remains unresolved. Once prized trophies in the west’s co-ordinated response to Russia’s aggression, some have racked up vast maintenance costs for taxpayers, had their angry crews turn fire hoses and drones on snooping reporters, and been the target of sabotage plots by anti-war activists. 

For western governments, resolving the fate of these superyachts will be a high-stakes test of the effectiveness of economic sanctions. For lawyers working for the oligarchs who own them, the seizures are acts of modern piracy.

Perhaps no single vessel exemplifies the array of headaches that seized superyachts have caused western governments more than the Amadea — a $300mn, 348ft boat detained by the US authorities in Fiji in 2022.

Such is its gaudy opulence that the Amadea could be a pastiche of an oligarch’s fantasies. According to a 2021 profile in Boat International, it boasts a Pleyel piano with 24-carat gold pedals, a swimming pool that converts into a stage for DJs, hand-painted Michelangelo clouds on the dining-room ceiling, a lobster tank and a helipad. 

When the US Department of Justice seized the Amadea, it claimed that it was owned by the sanctioned Dagestan-born gold magnate Suleiman Kerimov. The DoJ said he was “part of a group of Russian oligarchs who profit from the Russian government through corruption and its malign activity around the globe”.

Deputy US attorney-general Lisa Monaco announced at the time that the seizure “should tell every corrupt Russian oligarch that they cannot hide”. Not long after Amadea was seized in Fiji, she told the Aspen Security Forum that investigators had even discovered an “alleged Fabergé egg” aboard. It was later found to be an imitation.

The Amadea was then moved by the US authorities from Fiji to San Diego, where it is currently moored. The US government last October brought a civil forfeiture case against the superyacht based on its claim that it was owned by Kerimov. 

We have 60,000 litres of diesel on board. If there are problems with fire detection, that could be very dangerous. You can’t get a fire engine in here’ Captain Guy Booth

During the time the Amadea has been stuck in San Diego, it has racked up maintenance bills of $740,000 a month, or almost $9mn a year, to be paid by the US government. Because of this, the Department of Justice moved to try to sell the boat, arguing that the costs it was incurring were “excessive”. 

Superyachts require constant maintenance and upkeep to keep their seaworthiness, let alone their value. Crew salaries and vast mooring fees must be paid. Hulls must be scraped, engines must be cleaned.

“The water here is brackish, half freshwater and half seawater, so things grow in it,” Booth says about Phi. “We are constantly having to remove biological marine growth from the filters. The teak decks require constant daily attention.”

Sabotage is also a risk. Lady Anastasia, a yacht seized in Mallorca and owned by the CEO of the Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheev, in February 2022 was almost destroyed by a Ukrainian mechanic working on the boat who tried to intentionally sink it.

Some boats have simply disappeared. In the summer of 2022, two yachts owned by Dmitry Mazepin, another sanctioned Russian billionaire, vanished from the Sardinian port of Olbia. An investigation by Italy’s financial police, which had seized both yachts shortly after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, found that one had made a stopover in Tunisia before vanishing, while the other was spotted sailing towards Turkey. In response, Italy has hit Mazepin with fines, which remain unpaid.

Booth says he believes Phi has suffered significant damage, as well as lost charter earnings, as a result of being stuck in Canary Wharf. “I am not at liberty to discuss the exact figure,” he says, “but it is huge. We are talking tens of millions of pounds.” 

Because of the freezing order, Phi’s Dutch manufacturer is unable to perform warranty work on the yacht. One of many issues, Booth says, is that he has been unable to fix faulty fire protection systems.

“We have 60,000 litres of diesel on board. If there are problems with the fire detection systems, that could be very dangerous. Exceptionally dangerous. You could have an ecological disaster in central London. You can’t get a fire engine in here.”

In Phi’s case, the costs are all borne by its Russian owner, who — unlike many other owners of frozen yachts — is not sanctioned and has not been proven to have any meaningful connection to the Russian state. He will be able to get this money back from the UK government only if the restriction order is overturned and he can then win a successful damages claim.

For other superyachts, the burden of paying for upkeep falls on the countries where they are being held. Lady M, a yacht owned by the sanctioned Russian steel and mining magnate Alexei Mordashov, has been blocked from leaving the Italian port of Imperia as one of seven yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs in the country.

Another, Sailing Yacht A, designed by Philippe Starck and, at 468ft long, one of the largest private sail-assisted motor yachts in the world, is currently impounded in the port of Trieste. Alleged by the Italian state to be owned by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko, the boat is estimated to have cost the Italian taxpayer more than €18mn in upkeep, according to the local newspaper Il Piccolo. Lawyers for Melnichenko have said he does not personally own the yacht, and instead it is controlled by a trust that has no connection to him.

Costs aside, seizing a superyacht is simple enough, provided it is in the right place. At the time of the invasion, the only way for sanctioned Russian oligarchs to protect their yachts was to be lucky or shrewd enough to not have them in territories or waters where they could be captured. In March 2022, two superyachts belonging to Roman Abramovich, one of them featuring an onboard missile defence system and anti-paparazzi “laser shield”, sailed away from Europe towards Turkey and remain free to this day.

But in an industry where it is common to own vessels through cascades of offshore companies and anonymous trusts, a far trickier task for investigators can be to prove in court who really owns a superyacht once it has been detained.

Legal tussles over the ownership of government-seized assets are common. The difference with the superyachts is the owners’ legal resources, the value of the assets and the cost to the taxpayer

In the case of the Amadea, the US government has been battling in court to prove that Kerimov is its true owner before it can be allowed to sell the yacht and stop paying the vast costs of its upkeep.

The Department of Justice appeared to have strong evidence to back up its claims, including records showing that Kerimov’s family spent large amounts of time on the Amadea, and that his children had requested structural modifications to the superyacht.

However, Kerimov denied ownership. Instead, a different wealthy Russian, Eduard Khudainatov, a former chief executive of the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft, stepped forward to claim that he, in fact, was the true owner of the Amadea and the seizure was unlawful.

“When you need records from overseas, when you are dealing with shell companies in secrecy jurisdictions, or people are hiding behind nominee owners, it’s going to take a long time,” says Stefan Cassella, a former federal prosecutor who served 30 years in the US Department of Justice specialising in asset forfeiture.

Cassella says these sorts of legal tussles over who owns an asset that has been seized by a government are common. The difference in the case of oligarch-owned superyachts is the legal resources available to the owners fighting the seizures, the size and value of the assets, and the cost to the taxpayer of keeping them afloat.

“We litigate this all the time,” Cassella tells me. “Say a drug agent sees a dealer dealing from a Mercedes car and they want to seize it. He claims it’s not his car, that his mother or sister owns it. We then need to litigate with that person to see if they are really the owner. Who pays the insurance? Who brought it in to get oil changed? Whose garage is it sitting in? This is the same, just on a much larger scale.”

The US responded in a court filing to Khudainatov’s claim to own the Amadea by accusing him of being a “clean, unsanctioned straw owner” serving as a front for Kerimov. Khudainatov’s lawyers have denied he is a straw owner and say he is the legal owner of the yacht.

The picture was further muddied when it was alleged by the US in court documents that Khudainatov, who in June 2022 was placed under EU sanctions, was the fake owner of another, even more valuable and mysterious super yacht, the Scheherazade — which he has denied.

The Scheherazade, one of the longest yachts in the world, worth an estimated $700mn, was seized by the Italian authorities in the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara in May 2022 because of its suspected “meaningful economic and business connections with prominent elements of the Russian government subject to EU sanctions”.

In 2022 the now deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation published an investigation that claimed that the Scheherazade was in fact owned by Putin himself, based on the fact that many of its crew were agents of the Federal Protective Service, a state security unit responsible for the Russian president’s personal safety.

The US authorities have argued it is impossible that one man could own so many yachts, writing in court documents that “there is no reason to believe [Khudainatov] has the financial resources to purchase the Amadea and the Scheherazade, or is there any apparent reason why a single individual would own multiple superyachts of their size”.

Whoever is the true owner of the Scheherazade, they have not let its seizure dim their ambitions. During the time it has been held in Tuscany, the Italian government has allowed the owner to pay for an expensive refurbishment. It is a decoration job that the owner clearly wants to conduct in privacy. When reporters from Radio Free Europe tried to get close to the vessel earlier this year the Scheherazade’s crew turned on fire hoses, and deployed a drone to follow them.

Meanwhile, last month a New York court ruled that the US government was not allowed to sell the Amadea, meaning that US taxpayers will have to continue for now to foot the bill for its upkeep. 

Even if governments are able to establish ownership and get court permission to sell a superyacht, further legal complexities can make finding a buyer difficult. In June 2023 the Alfa Nero, a yacht alleged to be owned by the US-sanctioned phosphate billionaire Andrey Guryev, which has been impounded in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua, was sold at auction for $67mn to former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.

The deal later fell apart, with the US ambassador to Antigua announcing that Schmidt backed out of the purchase because he was worried about future legal problems if he bought it.

Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, Guryev’s daughter, this year launched a challenge to the Antiguan government’s decision to seize and sell the Alfa Nero, claiming that she is the sole beneficiary of the trust that owns the yacht, rather than her father. The case is expected to be heard in September.

Back in the UK, Booth, the captain of Phi, believes that the yacht and its owner have been unfairly caught up in events outside of their control. “He’s not a billionaire, he’s never met Putin,” Booth says of Phi’s owner Sergei Naumenko. “He’s against the war. He’s just a private Russian gentleman who likes boats.” 

Phi will make another bid to be freed in the UK’s Supreme Court, in an appeal to be heard next January.

Captain Booth says he will not desert his ship. “My team and I have remained on board, remained loyal. I’ve won numerous awards for what I do in my industry. I could have left almost straight away, and said, ‘This is not my bag, I’m off to captain another superyacht in the Med’ . . . I would not sleep well at night if I abandoned this owner.”

But Booth and his crew may be waiting a long time. Cassella, the forfeiture lawyer, says he expects many cases to drag on for as long as a decade. “I thought two years ago when all the superyachts were seized that 10 years was an appropriate timeframe,” he says. “This is not going to be resolved any time soon.”

Miles Johnson is an investigative reporter for the FT. His book ‘Chasing Shadows: A True Story of Drugs, War and The Secret World of International Crime’ is now out in paperback

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West hits Russian oligarchs where it hurts — their mega-yachts

By Megan Cerullo

March 7, 2022 / 1:55 PM EST / MoneyWatch

The U.S. and European Union are cracking down on sanctions against Russian billionaires by taking control of their mega yachts and other valuable assets, including villas and private jets, parked in territory over which their governments have jurisdiction. 

Italy on Friday said it seized a $70 million yacht moored in Liguria, Italy, belonging to Alexey Alexandrovits Mordaschov, a steel magnate with close ties to the Kremlin. 

"Italy's police has just seized 'Lady M Yacht' - a €65 million yacht belonging to Alexey Alexandrovits Mordaschov located in Imperia (Liguria) - in compliance with the recent EU sanctions," Ferdinando Giugliano, a media adviser to Italy's prime minister, said in a tweet.

Italy’s police has just seized “Lady M Yacht” - a €65m yacht belonging to Alexey Alexandrovits Mordaschov located in Imperia (Liguria) - in compliance with the recent EU sanctions. pic.twitter.com/8NzqkXH7lE — Ferdinando Giugliano (@FerdiGiugliano) March 4, 2022

On Saturday, Italy's tax police also froze "Lena," a $54 million yacht belonging to Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko, the founder of a Moscow, Russia-based private investment group and close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom the EU has sanctioned.

Assets that cannot be moved are even easier to take possession of, or prevent their owners from accessing. 

Italy also froze a $3.2 million property in Tuscany belonging to Oleg Savchenko, who is among the richest Russian business people. Giugliano tweeted an image of a Ministry of Economy and Finance vehicle in front of the estate, named "Villa Lazzareschi." 

Italy’s tax police also froze “Lena” - a €50m yacht belonging to Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko located in Sanremo (Liguria) - and “Villa Lazzareschi” - a €3m property belonging to Oleg Savchenko located in the province of Lucca (Tuscany). pic.twitter.com/yc1Q2y4d0G — Ferdinando Giugliano (@FerdiGiugliano) March 5, 2022

President Biden has also said the U.S. government is homing in on Russian oligarchs' super-yachts, private planes and other conspicuous symbols of their wealth as Russian President Vladimir Putin escalates his country's attack on Ukraine.  

A new federal task force, dubbed "KleptoCapture," will take aim at what Mr. Biden described in his State of the Union address on Tuesday as "the crimes of Russian oligarchs."  

"We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets," Mr. Biden said. "We are coming for your ill-begotten gains."

More than a dozen Russian billionaires are under sanction by the U.S., European Union and the United Kingdom, and some are trying to dodge restrictions by moving assets that are mobile — including mega-yachts — into territories where sanctions don't apply and where their property cannot be seized or their assets frozen. 

The super-yacht "Graceful," believed to be owned by Vladimir Putin himself, left Germany two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine and recently docked in Kaliningrad, near Russia's nuclear weapons operations, data form MarineTraffic, a maritime tracking website, shows. 

Putin ally Roman Abramovich, who made his fortune in the energy business, is not currently on any government sanction lists, but is making moves to unload valuable assets, including Chelsea Football Club. Among those assets is a super-yacht named "Eclipse" that is the third largest pleasure vessel in the world, measuring more than 540 feet long and 72 feet wide, according to Marine Vessel Traffic, a website that tracks the location of ships and other vessels, including privately owned yachts. It recently set sail from St. Barts to Philipsburg, the capital of Sint Maarten — the Dutch side of the Caribbean island Saint Martin.

"Le Grand Bleu," owned by Russian oil titan Eugene Shvidler, is also anchored off the island of St. Martin, where EU sanctions can be enforced. 

Too big to hide

Some oligarchs on sanction lists, who are alleged to have built their wealth in Russia through political corruption, have already been cut off from their own valuable assets. 

The EU's sanctions on Russian oligarchs on Wednesday led to Germany's freezing of a yacht owned by Alisher Usmanov, one of the wealthiest Russians, according to a Forbes report . According to Marine Traffic, the 512-foot yacht, named "Dilbar," had been stationed in Hamburg, Germany, since October 29 for repairs. 

The French Ministry of Economy and Finance on Thursday said its customs agents seized the "Amore Vero" yacht belonging to a company owned by Igor Setchine, director of Russian oil company Rosneft. The yacht had been stationed for repairs in La Ciotat in Southern France's Cote d'Azur region. 

While the crew's intention was to "sail urgently, without having completed the planned work," it was seized before it could depart, the agency said. 

Fleeing hotspots

In hopes of avoiding the same fate, some yacht owners are "hightailing it on the high seas," financier and anti-corruption activist Bill Browder told CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge. 

They are mooring their mega-yachts, some with 100-member-crews, in places like Dubai and the Maldives — a nation of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean, which does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. "They're parking their assets where they cannot be seized," Browder told CBS MoneyWatch. 

The problem is that ships of this size can't stay indefinitely in a place like the Maldives, which can generate significant income through docking fees, given their need to refuel and stock provisions. 

"There are a number of these yachts in the Maldives, and unless those countries put sanctions in place they're probably safer there," Alasdair Milroy, a maritime accountant and owner of Breaking the Mould Accounting, told CBS MoneyWatch. "But you can only spend so long in someplace like the Maldives on a yacht of that size without needing provisions, or to refuel, so I don't know how well that will last for a longer period. I don't think they'll be able to do that for that long."

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who is in charge of the new U.S. task force targeting Russian oligarchs, issued a stark warning: "We will use every tool to freeze and seize your criminal proceeds," she said in a statement.

Confiscating Russian oligarchs' wealth could be an effective tactic, Browder told CBS MoneyWatch. "It's hugely symbolic, and part of this thing is psychological war. This really has an impact — if not financially, then psychologically."

At least 10 of the 100 largest super-yachts in the world belong to Russian oligarchs, according to Marine Vessel Traffic .

Websites tracking maritime activity show that other oligarchs' yachts are on the move as their owners attempt to shield their assets from seizure. The "Galactica Super Nova," a 230-foot long, $80 million vessel owned by Vagit Alekperov, president of Russian oil company Lukoil, recently left its mooring in Barcelona, Spain, where EU sanctions apply, and set sail for Tivat, Montenegro, in the Balkans, according to VesselFinder.com.  

"Clio," a super-yacht owned by Russian industrialist Oleg Deripaska, is currently anchored off of the Maldives, according to MarineTraffic.com . A handful of other oligarch-owned mega-yachts are also moored in the Maldives, including Alexander Abramov's "Titan," Viktor Rashnikov's "Ocean Victory" and Vladimir Potanin's "Nirvana." 

How sanctions work

Placing an individual or their assets under official sanction does not give another government the legal authority to seize their assets — only to freeze or cut off their owner's access. 

"Generally speaking, sanctions are the authority that allow us to freeze assets. They are most easily understood in context of a bank account — it's literally put into a frozen account that still exists and collects interest and you own it, but you can't get any money from it," said Adam M. Smith, a partner at law firm Gibson Dunn. 

Tangible property must also be under the jurisdiction of the U.S. for any sanctions to work, or for the government to cut off their owner's ability to use an asset like a private yacht or jet. 

Daniel P. Ahn, a sanctions and economic warfare expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former chief economist for the U.S. State Department, said that targeting an individual's yacht can limit its use even it isn't seized.

"If it arrives in the West, any port that can refuel is not allowed to do that anymore. So maybe the yacht itself doesn't get seized, but it's a lot less useful thing to have," he said. 

For this reason, sanctioned individuals may choose to try to sell assets like yachts at a loss, rather than risk losing use of them indefinitely. 

"If I was an oligarch, the first thing I would do is I would protest and say I shouldn't be blacklisted. Second would be to see if I can liquidate these assets and claw back something, knowing that otherwise it may rot at the pier without proper maintenance and the like," Ahn said.

As far as their impact goes, the sanctions are more than merely symbolic, he added. "The ultimate objective is to make life very difficult for these oligarchs, and it has been achieved," Ahn said. 

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

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US alleges sanctioned Russian oligarch’s niece made payments for his $300M yacht

The yacht, known as the Amadea, was seized by officials in 2022, with the U.S. alleging billionaire Putin ally Suleiman Kerimov is the ultimate beneficial owner.

U.S. authorities claim to be one step closer to proving a seized $300 million mega yacht is owned by sanctioned Russian Suleiman Kerimov, according to new court filings that detail alleged payments for the boat from the oligarch’s niece.

The yacht, a 348-foot luxury vessel known as Amadea, was seized in Fiji in 2022 by local officials at the request of the United States, as part of the Justice Department’s ongoing efforts to identify and seize assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Kerimov, known for throwing lavish parties and for his reportedly close relationship with Vladimir Putin, was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018. Britain and the European Union later followed suit.

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However, since the Amadea’s seizure, another Russian oligarch, Eduard Khudainatov, who is not currently under U.S. sanctions, has claimed to be the yacht’s rightful owner — an assertion U.S. authorities deny.

Prosecutors allege that new documents show Kerimov’s niece, Alisa Gadzhieva, entered into a loan agreement with the company that owns the yacht, Errigal Marine Limited, and then made two payments to Khudainatov’s holding company, Invest International Finance Ltd, Intelligence Online reported .

“The United States takes sanction evasion seriously and will use all tools at its disposal to ensure that sanctioned individuals are held accountable for their crimes,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in an earlier statement . 

The ship belongs to an array of high-value luxury items linked to Kerimov, including private jets and sportscars, like a $650,000 Ferrari that Kerimov totaled in a fiery crash on the French Riviera in 2006. 

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The yacht’s seizure followed ICIJ’s Pandora Papers, which included revelations on the offshore financial empire of Kerimov and his closest associates. The investigation showed billions of dollars flowing through opaque offshore shell companies associated with Kerimov, and covert money flows tied to oligarchs and others close to the Kremlin. It also highlighted offshore professionals who have helped oligarchs secretly buy luxury assets like yachts and jets.

Gadzhieva’s brother, Kerimov’s nephew Nariman Gadzhiev, is also under U.S. sanctions for allegedly serving as an assistant and financial facilitator for Kerimov. ICIJ’s reporting showed that, in 2012, a firm registered in Gadzhiev’s name worked with Credit Suisse to secure a $67 million loan for the acquisition of a custom-built Boeing 737 Business Jet as well as a Bombardier Global Express jet. A few years later, an article in Forbes Russia described Kerimov as owning the same kind of Boeing jet.

The Amadea, which is currently in U.S. custody, has already cost over $7 million in taxpayer funds to maintain while the legal battle plays out, The Guardian reported.