By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Fijian authorities searching a yacht they seized on behalf of the United States as it pressurizes Russia over the Ukraine invasion have found documents implicating its suspected owner, Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, in breach of the law. American, the FBI said.
The Amadea arrived in Fiji on April 13, after an 18-day voyage from Mexico, and has since been the focus of a US attempt to seize it as part of US sanctions. .against Russia.
Fijian police and FBI agents seized the Amadea at a dock on Thursday, two days after a Fijian court issued a US arrest warrant linking it to money laundering.
The Fiji High Court on Friday rejected a request for a stay by the ship’s registered owner, Millemarin Investments, to prevent US authorities from removing it from Fiji, the Fiji prosecutor said in a statement.
The $300 million superyacht had been turned over to US authorities, he said.
The FBI said in an affidavit attached to the US seizure order that Fijian authorities had found documents at Amadea showing violations of US law because Kerimov was sanctioned by the US in 2018.
“There is probable cause to believe that Kerimov and those acting on his behalf and for his benefit caused US dollar transactions for the operation and maintenance of Amadea to be sent through US financial institutions, after some time in which Kerimov was designated by the Treasury Department,” the FBI said.
The ship had running costs of $25 million to $30 million, he said.
Lawyers for its registered owner, the Cayman Islands company Millemarin Investments, have denied that it is owned by Kerimov. The ship’s lawyer, Feizal Haniff, declined to comment to Reuters on Friday.
The United States alleges that Kerimov has been the beneficial owner of Amadea since August 2021, but evidence for this claim was redacted in the warrant.
The FBI said the Amadea had tried to avoid capture “almost immediately” after Russian troops entered Ukraine.
“Amadea turned off its automated information systems (AIS) on February 24, 2022, almost immediately after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” the FBI said.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West say that the fascist accusation is unfounded and that the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.
The ship’s documentation showed that the next destination would be the Philippines, but the FBI believed it was headed for the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok.
Many Russian oligarchs have tried to move their yachts to Russia to escape US sanctions since March, the FBI said.
The US Department of Justice’s KleptoCapture task force has focused on seizing yachts and other luxury assets to put Russian oligarchs’ finances under strain in a bid to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war. in Ukraine.
Commenting on the Amadea seizure in Fiji, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement: “The FBI, along with our international partners, will continue to search for individuals who are contributing to the advancement of Russia’s malign activities and will will ensure that they are brought to justice, regardless of where or how they try to hide.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Reference-news.yahoo.com