HONOLULU (KITV4) -- A superyacht belonging to a Russian oligarch is docked in Honolulu after being seized by the US Justice Department.
The 348-foot superyacht, Amadea, docked at Pier 2C, just offshore near Hawaii Pacific University, on Thursday.
The US won a legal battle on June 7 to seize the Amadea in Fiji and federal officials moved quickly to take command of the $325-million vessel. The U.S. removed the motorized vessel within an hour or two of the court’s ruling, possibly to ensure the yacht didn’t get entangled in any further legal action.
The court ruling represented a significant victory for the U.S. as it encounters obstacles in its attempts to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs around the world. While those efforts are welcomed by many who oppose the war in Ukraine, some actions have tested the limits of American jurisdiction abroad.
By Barbara Starr, Jeremy Herb and Oren Liebermann, CNN
The FBI has linked Amadea to the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
In court documents, the FBI linked the Amadea to the Kerimov family through their alleged use of code names while aboard and the purchase of items such as a pizza oven and a spa bed. The ship became a target of Task Force KleptoCapture, launched in March to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs to put pressure on Russia to end the war.
The 106-meter (348-foot) -long vessel, about the length of a football field, features a live lobster tank, a hand-painted piano, a swimming pool and a large helipad.
The U.S. said Kerimov secretly bought the Cayman Island-flagged Amadea last year through various shell companies. The FBI said a search warrant in Fiji turned up emails showing that Kerimov’s children were aboard the ship this year and that the crew used code names — G0 for Kerimov, G1 for his wife, G2 for his daughter and so on.
The Justice Department said it didn’t believe paperwork showing the Amadea was next headed to the Philippines, arguing it was really destined for Vladivostok or elsewhere in Russia.
According to Hawaii Port-Call, the Amadea is scheduled to depart from Honolulu on Saturday at 5:30 a.m.
