Russian Oligarch Suleiman Kerimov’s $300 million yacht was seized in Fiji at request of the U.S., the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.
“Fijian law enforcement executed a seizure warrant freezing the Motor Yacht Amadea (the Amadea), a 348-foot luxury vessel owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov,” the department said in a statement.
According to the statement, Fijian law enforcement, with the support and assistance of the FBI, seized the yacht after a U.S. district court found the yacht was subject to forfeiture based on probable cause of violations of U.S. law, including money laundering.
Kerimov has been designated as part of a group of Russian oligarchs by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control “who profit from the Russian government through corruption and its malign activity around the globe, including the occupation of Crimea.”
“The Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable those who facilitate the death and destruction we are witnessing in Ukraine,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the statement.
Kerimov, believed to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is among several Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the U.S., E.U. and U.K. over the Ukraine war.
According to Forbes, he has a net worth of $14.5 billion and is the ninth richest person in Russia.
