Mystery Russian superyacht sets sail for the US after Fiji court ruling

theguardian.com:

It cost $325m (£258m) to build, and millions more each year to run. When not at sea, the Amadea superyacht requires a crew of 24 deckhands and engineers to keep her shipshape.

In written evidence to a court in Fiji, where the vessel has been the subject of a legal battle over which Russian oligarch she belongs to, her captain listed the costly, and perishable materials: marble, gilded metal fittings, sensitive carpets, silk, precious woods and leathers, teak decking, mirror polished stainless steel and a high gloss paint system.

Without the right care, and the kind of temperature and humidity controls normally used to preserve valuable artworks, the captain said the Amadea would “rapidly deteriorate”, leaving “an unsaleable hull”. He put the cost of simply keeping her in dry dock at $1.1m per month. “There are a very, very limited number of buyers who can afford her upkeep, let alone her purchase price,” he explained.

The identity of that buyer will now be settled in a US court. Seized during a voyage in the South Pacific at the request of the US authorities, the Amadea has spent the last few weeks docked in Lautoka Wharf in Fiji, awaiting the outcome of a legal dispute between the Department of Justice in the US and the British Virgin Islands company in whose name she is registered.

Fiji’s supreme court ruled on Tuesday morning that the vessel could be handed to the US authorities, and the Amadea is now headed for America.

Lawyers acting for a previously low-profile Russian oil boss, Eduard Khudainatov, insist he is the owner. They say he is the settlor of a trust, established under English law, which ultimately holds the vessel through a twisting trail of offshore companies. American officials allege Khudainatov is merely a