US says $300 million Russian-owned yacht was seized in Fiji Russian powerful oil and metals magnate, billionaire Suleiman Kerimov. (Sergei Rasulov Jr./AFP via Getty Images/TNS)
Officials in Fiji have seized a $300 million yacht allegedly owned by Suleiman Kerimov at the request of the U.S. Justice Department.
The 348-foot Amadea was seized after a U.S. court found it was “subject to forfeiture based on probable cause of violations of U.S. law,” the Justice Department said in a release Thursday. Kerimov is one of several Russians that are on a U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions list.
“This seizure of Suleiman Kerimov’s vessel, the Amadea, nearly 8,000 miles from Washington, D.C., symbolizes the reach of the Department of Justice as we continue to work with our global partners to disrupt the sense of impunity of those who have supported corruption and the suffering of so many,” Andrew Adams, director of Task Force KleptoCapture, said in the statement.
Fiji’s High Court approved the seizure earlier this week. A lawyer representing the company that the vessel is registered under said the superyacht is owned by another tycoon who is not on sanctions lists.
___
© 2022 Bloomberg L.P Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
