- The US has been $4 a $300 million
yacht linked to a Russianoligarch for weeks. - But the crew is "refusing to sail" with US authorities, according to $4.
The crew of a $300 million superyacht linked to a sanctioned Russian oligarch is "refusing to sail" with US authorities who are attempting to seize the vessel, according to $4.
For weeks, US officials have struggled to seize the Amadea, a luxury superyacht docked in
The reasoning behind the crew's refusal was two-fold, according to CBS' reporting based on a sworn affidavit from the ship's British captain, John Walsh.
The first is that the crew members are no longer being paid to sail the Amadea because the owner's funds have been frozen. On top of that, the crew is worried that breaching its employment contract by working with US law enforcement could ruin their professional reputation, the report says.
"In short, the current crew of the Amadea are refusing to sail on the Amadea with the U.S. authorities to an unknown destination," Walsh wrote, per CBS.
Following the incident, the US appears to have hired a new crew for the ship. However, the boat's captain repeatedly rejected having new crewmembers on board due to a lack of proper "vetting," CBS reports.
The 348-foot Amadea, equipped with a helipad, pool, and eight cabins, is one of the largest superyachts in the world.
Kerimov, its $4 was sanctioned by the US in 2018 and is said to have "close ties" to
So far, the US has fallen behind its European allies when it comes to seizing the sanctioned billionaires' "ill-gotten gains," an economic punishment officials hope will turn the country's elite against Putin.
The oligarch's lawyer argued that the ship's true owner is a Russian oil executive named Eduard Khudainatov, who is not sanctioned. On Friday, a $4 that was preventing the ship's seizure. He has a week to appeal the decision.