zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Beyond Cars
/
Supposed Owners Of Abandoned Superyacht Want Their Big Boat Back
Supposed Owners Of Abandoned Superyacht Want Their Big Boat Back-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:13:48

The superyatch Alfa Nero parked in a marina. The yacht had a dark blue hull and white decks on top.

When the 265-foot , we figured that was it; the had finally found a home. Unfortunately for the government of Antigua and Barbuda, however, that is not the case.

We’ve been following the fate of the Alfa Nero since officials first began seizing Russian oligarch-owned superyachts at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia received strict sanctions from the international community for its act of aggression against the country. This resulted in Russia’s monied class losing some of their biggest and bestest toys.

Many of these superyachts are owned by shell companies owned by different shell companies in order to protect assets. When this scheme didn’t exactly work, wealthy Russians scattered with some leaving their big boats right where they were parked. The Alfa Nero — with its six staterooms, helipad and crew quarters that can squeeze in 28 personal — is one such boat. U.S. officials figured out that the Alfa Nero was likely owned by fertilizer magnate and sanctions list rockstar Andrey Guryev, the 25th richest man in Russia.

The Alfa Nero has been parked in Antigua since the start of the invasion. The small Caribbean country was paying (and that’s not counting crew costs and dock fees.) When no the boat Antigua held an auction, and gave the owner of the yacht 10 days to claim their property in March. When no one came forward, the Alfa Nero was seized by April and was by June.

The winning bid of $67.6 million came from ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt and actually bumped up the entire nation’s GDP by four percent. As you can imagine, the country is eager to unload this boat and get the cash. Only now there is a new wrinkle, according to the :

“This whole damn thing has been like a Tom Clancy novel,” Darwin Telemaque, chief executive of the Antigua and Barbuda Port Authority, told the London last month. “And I’m stuck in the middle.”

[...]

But just this month, another obstacle appeared: Guryev’s daughter, Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, who lives in London with her hedge-fund manager husband Alexei Motlokhov. (The two recently caused a stir for trying to build a massive playground in the backyard of their $6 million, five-bedroom home, which neighbors deemed “more like a theme park.”) In an appeal filed July 12, Guryeva-Motlokhov claimed she is the sole beneficiary of the trust that owns the Flying Dutchman, and thus the rightful owner of the Alfa Nero.

In her appeal, she claimed that the Antiguan government did not have the right to sell off her property and that the auction had been improperly executed, according to the .

Her attorney, David Dorsett, told the he intends to fight for her right to the superyacht, adding: “We just want our boat back.”

“We think the action of the government in taking possession of the yacht and selling the yacht is wrong on all levels,” he said. “It is not the government’s yacht; they cannot just take it up and sell it to somebody else.”

For one, I think Guryeva-Motlokhov is right; its incredibly unfair for some foreign government to waltz right in and just take someone else’s property. Perhaps she could take this philosophy up with her own government back home in Russia.

The government of Antigua and Barbuda counter filed against Guryeva-Motlokhov, saying the fertilizer magnate’s daughter has no standing to demand the Alfa Nero back. For now though, Schmidt is stuck without his big boat (well, his second big boat) and refuses to pay Antigua and Barbuda until the boat is delivered. The small country is scrambling once again to force the deal and get the Alfa Nero off their books. The whole thing

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Beyond Cars
Marshmallow Treats Ended Up On The Royal Air Force's No-Fly List
Marshmallow Treats Ended Up On The Royal Air Force's No-Fly List
Over in the United Kingdom, there’s a certain dessert known as a “teacake” — or, as a British friend kindly informed me, it’s more accurately known as a “Tunnock” in Scotland. Basically, the food in question for this particular story are actually a cookie base topped with marshmallow, coated...
Jul 12, 2025
Aircraft Touch Tips During Blizzard At Japanese Airport
Aircraft Touch Tips During Blizzard At Japanese Airport
As at , its port side wing the starboard vertical stabilizer of bound for Hong Kong. This comes at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, and . “Our aircraft, which was stationary at the time with no customers nor crew onboard, was struck by a Korean Air A330 which was taxiing past,”...
Jul 12, 2025
2023 Zero DSR/X: The Bike Of The Future, But Not Our Future
2023 Zero DSR/X: The Bike Of The Future, But Not Our Future
The world, in 2023, is cyberpunk. We’ve got the , the , and the that keeps the and the . But in cyberpunk media, people are always riding . Why are we stuck with the same bikes we’ve always had? , it seems, wants to address this grievous wrong....
Jul 12, 2025
Deadliest Train In America Kills 3 People In 2 Separate Collisions At The Same Crossing
Deadliest Train In America Kills 3 People In 2 Separate Collisions At The Same Crossing
operate between Orlando and Miami and hold the unwelcome distinction of being both the first intra-city high speed rail in the U.S. and the , by far. After three people died at a single grade crossing in two separate incidents last week it seems the feds are finally perking...
Jul 12, 2025
Crystal Chunks Are Bursting Through The Road In China
Crystal Chunks Are Bursting Through The Road In China
A video of what looks like quartz breaking through the surface of a is making the rounds on . I don’t get over there much, being suspicious of the Chinese over concerns of it spying on its users, as the reports. OK, fine. Actually, I just don’t get the humor...
Jul 12, 2025
String Of Boeing Failures Continues With 737-800 Flight Turning Back With Cracked Cockpit Windshield
String Of Boeing Failures Continues With 737-800 Flight Turning Back With Cracked Cockpit Windshield
In the wake of recent major , including , , and the debacle that was , it isn’t a good time for further failures by the company. that would , an unrelated 737-800 with a cracked windshield, became international news this weekend. The flight took off from Sapporo-New Chitose...
Jul 12, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved