What happened
In May 2022, the yacht M/Y Amadea, worth more than $300M and linked to Suleiman Kerimov, was seized in Fiji at the request of the U.S. KleptoCapture program. On March 10, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found that Eduard Khudainatov (a former head of Rosneft who is not under sanctions) was a nominal owner of the yacht acting on behalf of Suleiman Kerimov and, on that basis, held that he lacked standing. On June 1, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed that decision. U.S. authorities have put the yacht up for sale. In April 2022, Spanish authorities, at the request of the United States, seized Viktor Vekselberg’s yacht M/Y Tango, worth about $90M, under a warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on suspicion of bank fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations.
Why it is notable
The first precedents for the forced forfeiture of Russian billionaires’ superyachts through the U.S. civil forfeiture mechanism. The cases shaped how U.S. courts approach the question of the true owner when forfeiting assets of sanctioned persons held in the names of nominee owners.