Fiji has handed over to the United States a $325 million superyacht that American investigators say is owned by a Russian billionaire on a U.S. sanctions listing, the island nation’s high prosecutor mentioned on Tuesday.
The handover of the yacht, the Amadea, was primarily based on a choice by Fiji’s Supreme Court and is a brand new growth in a world effort to grab the belongings of oligarchs with ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
The Amadea was held in Fijian waters in April in response to a U.S. request for help and seized final month primarily based on a warrant that had been issued by a federal court docket in Washington and accepted by a Fijian court docket.
The Amadea’s possession construction is murky. American investigators say that the yacht was offered final yr to Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian authorities official and billionaire investor who has been on the U.S. sanctions listing since 2018. But Feizal Haniff, a lawyer in Fiji who represents an organization within the British Virgin Islands that controls the vessel, has argued that its true proprietor is Eduard Khudainatov, a rich Russian who isn’t beneath U.S. sanctions.
Fiji’s Court of Appeal dismissed Mr. Haniff’s attraction in late May however mentioned that the judgment wouldn’t take impact for seven days. Last week, he filed one other utility asking the Fijian authorities to delay imposing the U.S. warrant.
On Tuesday, the nation’s Supreme Court dominated that the yacht may go away Fiji within the care of the U.S. authorities, Christopher Pryde, the nation’s director of public prosecutions, mentioned in a press release.