Auckland: Fijian authorities are trying to determine what a superyacht belonging to a Russian billionaire is doing in the country.
The 106-metre mega yacht Amadea worth US$325 million, is owned by gold tycoon and alleged money launderer Suleiman Kerimov, worth $US4.4 billion.
The Amadea docked at Lautoka Wharf in Fiji.
“We’ll need clarification on that then we can comment on that,” Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete was quoted by the Fiji Times as saying. “We don’t do Russians.”
Questions over the status of the superyacht come as the impact of the penalties levied by Europe and the US on ultra-rich Russians seen as having close ties to President Vladimir Putin filter through the world.
Democracies have imposed an array of sanctions on Russia after the nation’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine. Superyachts and other displays of wealth among Russia’s elite have drawn especially intense scrutiny.
It is not clear whether Fiji will seize the yacht. But a source close to the government said, Fiji is not party to the US/UK treaty and “thus can and will not seize the Amadea”.
According to Fiji port requirements, any yacht arriving in the country must obtain approval from the ministries of Health, and Trade and Transport, including the Immigration Department.
But Fiji’s Immigration Secretary Yogesh Karan said, “We have heard about it [Amadea] but nothing has come to Immigration.”
The Amadea berthed in the country’s western city of Lautoka on Wednesday.
Marine Traffic, a maritime analytics service, showed the Amadea in Fiji waters from April 13. The vessel had left Manzanillo Port in Mexico on March 24.
The yacht risks being seized by the US, UK or any European Union country after sanctions were placed on Kerimov’s assets since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On November 21, 2017, Kerimov, a member of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house, was detained overnight at the Nice airport in France.
Moscow informed Paris that, as a senator, Kerimov had diplomatic immunity. But the French Foreign Ministry said Kerimov’s diplomatic immunity was applicable only to his official duties.
Kerimov was charged with money laundering and tax evasion to the tune of up to €750 million.
In late June 2018, a court of France’s Aix-en-Provence dropped all charges against the Russian senator.
The global dragnet on Russian oligarch’s yachts and assets continues.
Authorities in Hamburg impounded Russian billionaire Usmanov’s superyacht after determining it was legally owned by his sister, who is also subject to western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
The 156-metre vessel, the world’s largest by volume, had been undergoing refitting in the northern German port city.
The yacht docking in Fiji comes as authorities in Hamburg impounded Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s superyacht Dilbar.
Kerimov, owner of the Amadea, is one of Russian President Vladmir Putin’s closest allies.
He has been sanctioned by the United States, United Kingdom and European Union states over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Stuff.co.nz, Bloomberg
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