US federal judge allows attorneys to subpoena financial records in Antigua yacht case
A federal judge in New York has granted the attorneys of a Russian woman permission to issue subpoenas to access the financial records of Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister and other officials involved in the sale of a megayacht that her father had a...
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal judge in New York granted the attorneys of a Russian woman permission Monday to issue subpoenas to access the financial records of Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister and other officials involved in the sale of a megayacht that her father had abandoned.
The attorneys must first notify Prime Minister Gaston Browne and others before serving subpoenas on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S.-based Clearing House Payments Co.
“The financial records will speak for themselves,” said Martin De Luca, with Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.
He is one of the attorneys for Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, who claims she is the rightful owner of the Alfa Nero megayacht, which remained anchored off Antigua for a couple months before the local government seized and sold it last year.
Browne did not immediately respond to a message for comment regarding the judge’s ruling.
The attorneys for Guryeva-Motlokhov alleged in a March 11 filing in federal court that Browne’s administration has not released documents related to the $40 million sale of the yacht, once owned by Andrey Guryev, a Russian businessman who founded a fertilizer company and worked in the Russian government.
He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in August 2022, and the megayacht was removed from the sanctions list in June 2023 so Antigua could liquidate it.
Antigua’s opposition leaders also have demanded details of how the proceeds from the yacht sale were spent.
Browne has
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