The bill is extremely salty. US federal prosecutors have asked a judge for permission to sell a Russian oligarch’s yacht, which costs the authorities nearly a million dollars every month, reports CNN.
The super yacht Amadea, which measures more than 100 m long, was seized in June 2022 in a port in Fiji after American sanctions against its Russian owner, Suleyman Kerimov. This businessman is notably the owner of the Anji Makhachkala football club and considered one of the richest men in Russia.
He is also known in France for having been at the heart of a serious tax fraud laundering case, for which he was indicted in 2017.
Nearly $150,000 in insurance every month
US prosecutors seized the boat in retaliation for non-compliance with sanctions: they accuse the businessman of violating the measures by using the US banking system to cover the boat’s expenses. The yacht was docked in San Diego, California (United States) and has since been maintained by the American authorities. But the bill, extremely high, ended up weighing on American finances, according to the file filed by several federal prosecutors.
They consider that the expenses are “excessive” since the amount covered by the authorities is today estimated at 922,000 dollars (846,000 euros) per month: 600,000 dollars in maintenance costs, 144,000 dollars in insurance and $178,000 in drydocking costs. That’s almost 20 million dollars (18.3 million euros) since the seizure! They therefore wish to obtain the right to sell the yacht, estimated by the American police at 230 million dollars, or 211 million euros.