who owns alfa nero superyacht

Superyacht abandoned by a Russian fertilizer billionaire has a new secret owner, who got it for a huge discount

The Alfa Nero superyacht, which has been abandoned in the Caribbean for more than two years, has a new owner.

The 267-foot (81-meter) vessel, complete with a baby grand piano and a swimming pool that turns into a helipad, sold for $40 million last week, said Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US. He declined to name the buyer, citing a confidentiality agreement.

The sale marks the latest attempt to end the years-long Alfa Nero saga. A Russian oligarch abandoned the luxury yacht in Antigua in March 2022, after being sanctioned by the US Treasury. Then tech billionaire Eric Schmidt tried buying it at auction, only to  give up  when the sale became a legal quagmire. 

Meanwhile, the vessel sat in Antigua’s Falmouth Harbour being tended to by a skeleton crew and costing over a $100,000 a month to maintain.

At $40 million, the new Alfa Nero owner will end up paying far less than the $67.6 million that Schmidt, a former Google CEO, had offered last year. Sanctioned Russian fertilizer billionaire Andrey Guryev had originally bought the Alfa Nero in 2014 for $120 million, the US Treasury Department said — which Guryev denies. 

His daughter, Yulia Gurieva-Motlokhov, later stepped forward to claim ownership of the yacht, triggering a legal dispute.

“It’s not worth 40 million, it’s worth way more,” said Richard Higgins, a broker with Northrop & Johnson who represented the undisclosed buyer. “They needed to get the boat sold.”

Higgins said the new owner is European and will likely put the Alfa Nero on the charter market.

The Alfa Nero is among more than a dozen superyachts pinned down in ports around the globe after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought a series of economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs. Many of the vessels have been stuck in limbo amid costly legal disputes and racking up maintenance costs.

The Phi superyacht has been moored in London since 2022 while other vessels are stuck in Italy and Spain. There’s also the Amadea, a 348-foot ship with a lobster tank and hand-painted clouds on the dining-room ceiling, which was seized from its alleged oligarch owner in Fiji and now sits in California. Last month, a New York court denied the US government’s request to sell the Amadea, Voice of America  reported .

Alfa Nero’s new owner “is not included in the sanctions list of any country or institution,” Ambassador Sanders said.

The latest attempt to sell the Alfa Nero was brokered through a private contract, the port manager, Darwin Telemaque, said in a phone call. He also declined to name the buyer. Telemaque expects the proceeds will cover the millions of dollars in port fees the Alfa Nero has racked up.

“I am very happy that the ship is no longer the responsibility of the people and the government of Antigua and Barbuda,” he said. 

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What happened to Russia’s seized superyachts?

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Miles Johnson

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On the morning of March 29 2022, Captain Guy Booth was working aboard Phi, a 192ft aquamarine superyacht moored in London’s Canary Wharf, when he heard a commotion below. Down on the pier a car had pulled up and Grant Shapps, then the UK’s transport secretary, emerged from the vehicle, followed by a retinue of aides.

“The first thing we saw was his entourage, several men and women carrying clipboards and make-up and hairbrushes,” says Booth. 

Shapps and his team then began to shoot a video for the social media network TikTok, where the government minister announced that Phi — built in 2021 by the famed Dutch luxury shipbuilder Royal Huisman and worth an estimated £38mn — “belongs to a Russian oligarch, friends of Putin”.

Booth watched in amazement as several television crews who’d been tipped off about the news arrived at the scene. “Shapps was positioning himself like a big game hunter, checking his best angle,” says Booth. “They took several takes.”

Next, a black cab arrived and three officers from the UK’s National Crime Agency got out. They climbed aboard and handed Booth a brown envelope. Inside was a government order: the boat he captained was now detained for being “owned by persons connected with Russia”.

Video description

A video shot by Grant Shapps in Canary Wharf, which shows the yacht Phi after the order to detain it in London

Today, Phi is still moored in the same spot in Canary Wharf outside an Indian restaurant, and with a small skeleton crew aboard. Each day, Booth, along with two engineers, a chief officer, a crew cook and two deck hands wake up on board and dutifully service the vessel.

Its once feted “infinite wine cellar” and seven-metre swimming pool lie unused. A lonely sun lounger sits out on deck, and the yacht’s Maltese maritime flag droops. Pink paint has been applied to its roof to protect it from the risk of dust from nearby building sites. 

Paul Dickie, a lawyer at Jaffa & Co who has represented Phi, claims the boat has been targeted by squatters. A notice on its side warns any would-be trespassers that they will be prosecuted “to the full extent of the law”.

For western nations, the yachts’ fate is a high-stakes test of the effectiveness of sanctions. For the lawyers who work for the owners, these seizures are acts of modern piracy

Phi’s owner, a Russian businessman called Sergei Naumenko, has repeatedly denied any connection to Vladimir Putin or the Russian state, and has twice unsuccessfully appealed to the English courts to have the yacht released. 

In May 2023 an English High Court judge said Shapps’s TikTok video claims that the owner had “close connections to Putin” were “excusable political hyperbole”. The Court of Appeal in March this year said it was “troubled” by Shapps’s “incorrect” statements. Both courts, however, upheld the UK detention order for the vessel.

After Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 prompted western governments to unleash an avalanche of economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs, there are now multiple superyachts like Phi trapped in ports around the world. Several are stuck in seemingly never-ending legal quagmires, with vastly expensive lawyers hired by often opaque offshore owners battling for their release.

Although tens of billions of dollars of Russian-owned luxury assets, including mansions, luxury cars and private jets, have been frozen, it was the symbolism of the seizure of the oligarch superyachts — vast, floating Versailles palaces often worth hundreds of millions of dollars — that captured the public’s imagination. Anti-corruption campaigners hoped at the time that these vessels would be auctioned off and the proceeds could be donated to Ukraine.

Yet more than two years on from the start of the war, the future of these superyachts remains unresolved. Once prized trophies in the west’s co-ordinated response to Russia’s aggression, some have racked up vast maintenance costs for taxpayers, had their angry crews turn fire hoses and drones on snooping reporters, and been the target of sabotage plots by anti-war activists. 

For western governments, resolving the fate of these superyachts will be a high-stakes test of the effectiveness of economic sanctions. For lawyers working for the oligarchs who own them, the seizures are acts of modern piracy.

Perhaps no single vessel exemplifies the array of headaches that seized superyachts have caused western governments more than the Amadea — a $300mn, 348ft boat detained by the US authorities in Fiji in 2022.

Such is its gaudy opulence that the Amadea could be a pastiche of an oligarch’s fantasies. According to a 2021 profile in Boat International, it boasts a Pleyel piano with 24-carat gold pedals, a swimming pool that converts into a stage for DJs, hand-painted Michelangelo clouds on the dining-room ceiling, a lobster tank and a helipad. 

When the US Department of Justice seized the Amadea, it claimed that it was owned by the sanctioned Dagestan-born gold magnate Suleiman Kerimov. The DoJ said he was “part of a group of Russian oligarchs who profit from the Russian government through corruption and its malign activity around the globe”.

Deputy US attorney-general Lisa Monaco announced at the time that the seizure “should tell every corrupt Russian oligarch that they cannot hide”. Not long after Amadea was seized in Fiji, she told the Aspen Security Forum that investigators had even discovered an “alleged Fabergé egg” aboard. It was later found to be an imitation.

The Amadea was then moved by the US authorities from Fiji to San Diego, where it is currently moored. The US government last October brought a civil forfeiture case against the superyacht based on its claim that it was owned by Kerimov. 

We have 60,000 litres of diesel on board. If there are problems with fire detection, that could be very dangerous. You can’t get a fire engine in here’ Captain Guy Booth

During the time the Amadea has been stuck in San Diego, it has racked up maintenance bills of $740,000 a month, or almost $9mn a year, to be paid by the US government. Because of this, the Department of Justice moved to try to sell the boat, arguing that the costs it was incurring were “excessive”. 

Superyachts require constant maintenance and upkeep to keep their seaworthiness, let alone their value. Crew salaries and vast mooring fees must be paid. Hulls must be scraped, engines must be cleaned.

“The water here is brackish, half freshwater and half seawater, so things grow in it,” Booth says about Phi. “We are constantly having to remove biological marine growth from the filters. The teak decks require constant daily attention.”

Sabotage is also a risk. Lady Anastasia, a yacht seized in Mallorca and owned by the CEO of the Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheev, in February 2022 was almost destroyed by a Ukrainian mechanic working on the boat who tried to intentionally sink it.

Some boats have simply disappeared. In the summer of 2022, two yachts owned by Dmitry Mazepin, another sanctioned Russian billionaire, vanished from the Sardinian port of Olbia. An investigation by Italy’s financial police, which had seized both yachts shortly after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, found that one had made a stopover in Tunisia before vanishing, while the other was spotted sailing towards Turkey. In response, Italy has hit Mazepin with fines, which remain unpaid.

Booth says he believes Phi has suffered significant damage, as well as lost charter earnings, as a result of being stuck in Canary Wharf. “I am not at liberty to discuss the exact figure,” he says, “but it is huge. We are talking tens of millions of pounds.” 

Because of the freezing order, Phi’s Dutch manufacturer is unable to perform warranty work on the yacht. One of many issues, Booth says, is that he has been unable to fix faulty fire protection systems.

“We have 60,000 litres of diesel on board. If there are problems with the fire detection systems, that could be very dangerous. Exceptionally dangerous. You could have an ecological disaster in central London. You can’t get a fire engine in here.”

In Phi’s case, the costs are all borne by its Russian owner, who — unlike many other owners of frozen yachts — is not sanctioned and has not been proven to have any meaningful connection to the Russian state. He will be able to get this money back from the UK government only if the restriction order is overturned and he can then win a successful damages claim.

For other superyachts, the burden of paying for upkeep falls on the countries where they are being held. Lady M, a yacht owned by the sanctioned Russian steel and mining magnate Alexei Mordashov, has been blocked from leaving the Italian port of Imperia as one of seven yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs in the country.

Another, Sailing Yacht A, designed by Philippe Starck and, at 468ft long, one of the largest private sail-assisted motor yachts in the world, is currently impounded in the port of Trieste. Alleged by the Italian state to be owned by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko, the boat is estimated to have cost the Italian taxpayer more than €18mn in upkeep, according to the local newspaper Il Piccolo. Lawyers for Melnichenko have said he does not personally own the yacht, and instead it is controlled by a trust that has no connection to him.

Costs aside, seizing a superyacht is simple enough, provided it is in the right place. At the time of the invasion, the only way for sanctioned Russian oligarchs to protect their yachts was to be lucky or shrewd enough to not have them in territories or waters where they could be captured. In March 2022, two superyachts belonging to Roman Abramovich, one of them featuring an onboard missile defence system and anti-paparazzi “laser shield”, sailed away from Europe towards Turkey and remain free to this day.

But in an industry where it is common to own vessels through cascades of offshore companies and anonymous trusts, a far trickier task for investigators can be to prove in court who really owns a superyacht once it has been detained.

Legal tussles over the ownership of government-seized assets are common. The difference with the superyachts is the owners’ legal resources, the value of the assets and the cost to the taxpayer

In the case of the Amadea, the US government has been battling in court to prove that Kerimov is its true owner before it can be allowed to sell the yacht and stop paying the vast costs of its upkeep.

The Department of Justice appeared to have strong evidence to back up its claims, including records showing that Kerimov’s family spent large amounts of time on the Amadea, and that his children had requested structural modifications to the superyacht.

However, Kerimov denied ownership. Instead, a different wealthy Russian, Eduard Khudainatov, a former chief executive of the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft, stepped forward to claim that he, in fact, was the true owner of the Amadea and the seizure was unlawful.

“When you need records from overseas, when you are dealing with shell companies in secrecy jurisdictions, or people are hiding behind nominee owners, it’s going to take a long time,” says Stefan Cassella, a former federal prosecutor who served 30 years in the US Department of Justice specialising in asset forfeiture.

Cassella says these sorts of legal tussles over who owns an asset that has been seized by a government are common. The difference in the case of oligarch-owned superyachts is the legal resources available to the owners fighting the seizures, the size and value of the assets, and the cost to the taxpayer of keeping them afloat.

“We litigate this all the time,” Cassella tells me. “Say a drug agent sees a dealer dealing from a Mercedes car and they want to seize it. He claims it’s not his car, that his mother or sister owns it. We then need to litigate with that person to see if they are really the owner. Who pays the insurance? Who brought it in to get oil changed? Whose garage is it sitting in? This is the same, just on a much larger scale.”

The US responded in a court filing to Khudainatov’s claim to own the Amadea by accusing him of being a “clean, unsanctioned straw owner” serving as a front for Kerimov. Khudainatov’s lawyers have denied he is a straw owner and say he is the legal owner of the yacht.

The picture was further muddied when it was alleged by the US in court documents that Khudainatov, who in June 2022 was placed under EU sanctions, was the fake owner of another, even more valuable and mysterious super yacht, the Scheherazade — which he has denied.

The Scheherazade, one of the longest yachts in the world, worth an estimated $700mn, was seized by the Italian authorities in the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara in May 2022 because of its suspected “meaningful economic and business connections with prominent elements of the Russian government subject to EU sanctions”.

In 2022 the now deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation published an investigation that claimed that the Scheherazade was in fact owned by Putin himself, based on the fact that many of its crew were agents of the Federal Protective Service, a state security unit responsible for the Russian president’s personal safety.

The US authorities have argued it is impossible that one man could own so many yachts, writing in court documents that “there is no reason to believe [Khudainatov] has the financial resources to purchase the Amadea and the Scheherazade, or is there any apparent reason why a single individual would own multiple superyachts of their size”.

Whoever is the true owner of the Scheherazade, they have not let its seizure dim their ambitions. During the time it has been held in Tuscany, the Italian government has allowed the owner to pay for an expensive refurbishment. It is a decoration job that the owner clearly wants to conduct in privacy. When reporters from Radio Free Europe tried to get close to the vessel earlier this year the Scheherazade’s crew turned on fire hoses, and deployed a drone to follow them.

Meanwhile, last month a New York court ruled that the US government was not allowed to sell the Amadea, meaning that US taxpayers will have to continue for now to foot the bill for its upkeep. 

Even if governments are able to establish ownership and get court permission to sell a superyacht, further legal complexities can make finding a buyer difficult. In June 2023 the Alfa Nero, a yacht alleged to be owned by the US-sanctioned phosphate billionaire Andrey Guryev, which has been impounded in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua, was sold at auction for $67mn to former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.

The deal later fell apart, with the US ambassador to Antigua announcing that Schmidt backed out of the purchase because he was worried about future legal problems if he bought it.

Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, Guryev’s daughter, this year launched a challenge to the Antiguan government’s decision to seize and sell the Alfa Nero, claiming that she is the sole beneficiary of the trust that owns the yacht, rather than her father. The case is expected to be heard in September.

Back in the UK, Booth, the captain of Phi, believes that the yacht and its owner have been unfairly caught up in events outside of their control. “He’s not a billionaire, he’s never met Putin,” Booth says of Phi’s owner Sergei Naumenko. “He’s against the war. He’s just a private Russian gentleman who likes boats.” 

Phi will make another bid to be freed in the UK’s Supreme Court, in an appeal to be heard next January.

Captain Booth says he will not desert his ship. “My team and I have remained on board, remained loyal. I’ve won numerous awards for what I do in my industry. I could have left almost straight away, and said, ‘This is not my bag, I’m off to captain another superyacht in the Med’ . . . I would not sleep well at night if I abandoned this owner.”

But Booth and his crew may be waiting a long time. Cassella, the forfeiture lawyer, says he expects many cases to drag on for as long as a decade. “I thought two years ago when all the superyachts were seized that 10 years was an appropriate timeframe,” he says. “This is not going to be resolved any time soon.”

Miles Johnson is an investigative reporter for the FT. His book ‘Chasing Shadows: A True Story of Drugs, War and The Secret World of International Crime’ is now out in paperback

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Secret Buyer Pays $40 Million for Ditched Alfa Nero Superyacht

(Bloomberg) -- The Alfa Nero superyacht, which has been abandoned in the Caribbean for more than two years, has a new owner.

The 267-foot (81-meter) vessel, complete with a baby grand piano and a swimming pool that turns into a helipad, sold for $40 million last week, said Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US. He declined to name the buyer, citing a confidentiality agreement.

The sale marks the latest attempt to end the years-long Alfa Nero saga. A Russian oligarch abandoned the luxury yacht in Antigua in March 2022, after being sanctioned by the US Treasury. Then tech billionaire Eric Schmidt tried buying it at auction, only to give up when the sale became a legal quagmire. 

Meanwhile, the vessel sat in Antigua’s Falmouth Harbour being tended to by a skeleton crew and costing over a $100,000 a month to maintain.

At $40 million, the new Alfa Nero owner will end up paying far less than the $67.6 million that Schmidt, a former Google CEO, had offered last year. Sanctioned Russian fertilizer billionaire Andrey Guryev had originally bought the Alfa Nero in 2014 for $120 million, the US Treasury Department said — which Guryev denies. 

His daughter, Yulia Gurieva-Motlokhov, later stepped forward to claim ownership of the yacht, triggering a legal dispute.

“It’s not worth 40 million, it’s worth way more,” said Richard Higgins, a broker with Northrop & Johnson who represented the undisclosed buyer. “They needed to get the boat sold.”

Higgins said the new owner is European and will likely put the Alfa Nero on the charter market.

The Alfa Nero is among more than a dozen superyachts pinned down in ports around the globe after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought a series of economic sanctions against Russian oligarchs. Many of the vessels have been stuck in limbo amid costly legal disputes and racking up maintenance costs.

The Phi superyacht has been moored in London since 2022 while other vessels are stuck in Italy and Spain. There’s also the Amadea, a 348-foot ship with a lobster tank and hand-painted clouds on the dining-room ceiling, which was seized from its alleged oligarch owner in Fiji and now sits in California. Last month, a New York court denied the US government’s request to sell the Amadea, Voice of America reported .

Alfa Nero’s new owner “is not included in the sanctions list of any country or institution,” Ambassador Sanders said.

The latest attempt to sell the Alfa Nero was brokered through a private contract, the port manager, Darwin Telemaque, said in a phone call. He also declined to name the buyer. Telemaque expects the proceeds will cover the millions of dollars in port fees the Alfa Nero has racked up.

“I am very happy that the ship is no longer the responsibility of the people and the government of Antigua and Barbuda,” he said. 

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By Conor Feasey 09 Jan 2024

From Nero to Hero

A high court judge has ruled in favour of nautilus’ claim, with more than a year’s wages set to be paid to the crew of alfa nero….

Nautilus International has secured a settlement in favour of its members working aboard the abandoned Alfa Nero following an Antiguan High Court judgement. As a result of the lengthy legal battle, the crew are set to receive more than a year’s worth of unpaid wages. While what happens next in the Alfa Ner o saga remains unclear, with the government setting its sights on yet another auction, Charles Boyle, Director of Legal Services, Nautilus International, tells SuperyachtNews that the ruling is a huge victory for the union and its members.

“Although some crew may be slightly disappointed as they wanted to be successful on all aspects of the claims, securing payment for over a year’s worth of wages for our members is an amazing result,” he says. “This is especially true given the context of the Russian sanctions, which has been a completely new legal territory for everyone.”

The legal dispute revolved around outstanding payments owed to the original crew members before the yacht's abandonment and those who continued on board or were hired as part of the skeleton crew between March 2022 and April 2023.

Represented by Captain Christopher Malcolm Lewis and the UK-based trade union, the unionised crew members claimed that they were entitled to €2.2 million in unpaid wages with a 4 per cent interest rate. Their argument was grounded in Section 49(1) of the 2006 Merchant Shipping Act, asserting priority for maritime liens, including wages, over other debts. Simultaneously, non-unionised crew members filed a separate claim seeking payment of €439,494.40. The combined payment sought totalled around €2.7 million.

The claim arrived with Nautilus’ legal department via its yachting team. It quickly became very clear to the organisation that it had a lot of members who were owed payment for their work on Alfa Nero  which had not been paid due to the sanctions.

“The cohesiveness of our yachting and legal teams is what really spurred this battle on and allowed us to achieve the result that we did,” says Boyle. “Once the crew contacted our helpline, the yachting team were especially effective and efficient in handling the data collected from their seafarer’s employment agreements, payslips and other details about the claim, and then coordinating the best plan of action.” Nautilus’ legal team then took the initial approach of enforcing the claim as a maritime lien against the vessel, which was subsequently arrested by Nautilus.

Alfa Nero has been stationed in Antiguan waters since March 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Registered to Flying Dutchman Overseas, it faced sanctions from the US, prompting the termination of crew services by management company Burgess Crew Services. The yacht was declared abandoned and subsequently seized by the Antigua and Barbuda Port Authority in April 2023, enabling its eventual removal from the list of sanctioned vessels and allowing its potential sale.

The Antiguan government initially intended to use the proceeds of the sale for its own benefit after repaying all creditors of the yacht, which was met with some controversy when first announced. However, ownership disputes, particularly involving Russian oligarch Andrey Guryev's daughter, Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, and Flying Dutchman Overseas, have complicated the transaction. Notably, the government has continued to pay significant sums of money for the boat’s upkeep. This has in turn led to complications surrounding the crew’s pay.

“[Government officials] have acted as interveners and somewhat prevented our members from securing payment,” says Boyle. “They of course have the best interests of their government at heart and have been paying a huge amount of money on the yacht’s maintenance, not to mention the environmental risk it poses too. But whilst they are not saying that the crew shouldn’t be paid on principle, they have forced us to prove what our members are actually entitled to, and nothing more, because that would be less for them.”

High Court Judge Nicola Byer oversaw the hearing and addressed issues concerning the crew, Captain Lewis’ authority and ownership disputes. The judge determined that while Captain Lewis hired crew members out of necessity, any pay increase or promotion given between 17 March, 2022, and 10 April, 2023, was beyond his authority.

The judgment also dismissed claims of double pay, as the crew could not demonstrate their employer’s ability to fulfil promises. Byer then stated that crew members hired through Burgess were entitled to their holiday pay per their contracts before termination. Ultimately, the judge ruled that crew were entitled to be paid for the specified period as per their originally agreed upon rates.

No specific date for crew payment was provided in the judgment and given the nature of the sanctions and the yacht’s ownership disputes, what happens next is speculative. Usually in this situation, the funds for the crew’s wages would be covered in the proceeds of the sale. But having failed once already in auctioning the yacht, alternative routes may be the best course for both parties.

“The government could take the approach of issuing a bond to pay the crew, allowing them to deal with the claim immediately and then tackle the sale of the Alfa Nero on their own terms,” says Boyle. “The money flow still can’t come through the employer channel because of the sanctions, so they are going to have to get it from some other means.”

Until a buyer is found, Alfa Nero continues to pose challenges for the Antiguan government, accumulating lawsuits amid taxpayer concerns over ongoing maintenance costs. To tackle this, government officials have openly discussed the possibility of another auction to get rid of the vessel once and for all while simultaneously raising the capital to pay for the debts it has incurred while stationed in Falmouth Harbour.

The two preferred bidders in the initial auction last June, Eric Schmidt and Warren Halle, have retracted their interest in the superyacht. Former Google executive Schmidt withdrew his $67 million bid as a result of the legal delays relating to the yacht’s ownership, which prevented him from acquiring the rights to the vessel.

Meanwhile, Halle has sued the Antiguan government over its alleged failure to adhere to the auction’s rules, which by its own account would have seen Halle purchase the yacht following Schmidt’s failure to transfer the funds. The government is reportedly in talks with Halle to drop the lawsuit and sell the superyacht, but neither party can seem to agree on a price for the Oceanco yacht.

Following the High Court ruling, however, Nautilus has ensured that the crew can find solace in the fact that their pay has been secured, regardless of how the funds are raised. What this situation, among others, has shown amidst the issues the industry has faced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the necessity for crew to perform their due diligence on their ultimate employer.

“This case also shows us how vital it is to keep copies of your employment agreements and correspondence records, so if you ever do effectively have a claim, you have written evidence to back it up,” adds Boyle. “This judgment is a massive win for us and the Alfa Nero crew, and it was the result of months of hard work. It is an outcome we are immensely proud of, and one we aim to replicate for those in need in the future.”

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The auction of the $120 million Alfa Nero superyacht begins today as no one claimed ownership of the 267 feet long vessel from Antigua and Barbuda authorities

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This Abandoned 267-Foot Superyacht Has Links to a Russian Oligarch. Now It’s Heading to Auction.

Alfa nero will be sold to the highest bidder if it remains unclaimed., rachel cormack.

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“A notice to the newspapers and other media will be published for a period of 10 days, notifying the sale of the Alfa Nero vessel in order to satisfy the requirements under the law for a forced sale,” a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda read. “If the owner fails to claim the vessel within that time period, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda will sell it to the highest bidder.”

Delivered in 2007 by Oceanco, Alfa Nero features a striking exterior by Nuvolari Lenard and interior styling by Alberto Pinto that together have landed the yacht a number of awards. The beautiful behemoth notably features six staterooms, accommodation for 28 crew, a hydraulically operated pool and a large helipad aft. Alfa Nero was sold in 2011 to its current owner with an asking price of $115 million, according to Marine Industry News . The Guardian has previously reported that the yacht is linked to the Russian oligarch (and Putin ally) Andrey Guryev.

The Antigua and Barbuda government reportedly consulted with the US authorities prior to taking the action. During a media briefing, Information Minister Melford Nicholas told reporters that any proceeds from the sale of Alfa Nero would remain in the Antiguan government’s hands, but the US could request access to the funds in the future.

Rachel Cormack is a digital editor at Robb Report. She cut her teeth writing for HuffPost, Concrete Playground, and several other online publications in Australia, before moving to New York at the…

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Antigua and Barbuda is preparing to auction off an 'abandoned' $81 million superyacht linked to a Russian oligarch, reports say

• An $81 million superyacht linked to a Russian oligarch is reportedly set to be auctioned off. 
• The 81.2-meter Alfa Nero has been linked to Russian chemicals magnate Andrey Guryev.
• An Antigua and Barbuda government minister reportedly said the "abandoned" yacht risks becoming a "hazard."

An $81 million superyacht linked to a Russian oligarch is set to be auctioned off by the Antigua and Barbuda government, according to multiple reports .

The Alfa Nero was "abandoned" in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, in February 2022, the month Russia invaded Ukraine, and risks becoming a "hazard" because it's not being maintained, information minister Melford Nicholas was reported as saying.

The US Department of the Treasury has linked the Alfa Nero to Andrey Guryev , a Russian oligarch who the department says is a "close associate" of President Vladimir Putin. Guryev was sanctioned by the US in August, by the UK in April, and by the EU in March 2022.

Guryev is one of Russia's wealthiest individuals with a net worth of $10.1 billion, according to Bloomberg. He founded PhosAgro, a leading Russian chemical company, per the Treasury department.

The 81.2-meter Alfa Nero was built by Oceanco and can accommodate 12 guests in six staterooms and 28 crew, according to Boat International . The yacht features a swimming pool and gym, among other amenities, per photos published by Boat International.

The Antigua and Barbuda government said the Alfa Nero will be auctioned off if its owner doesn't claim it within 10 days of sale notices being placed in the media, according to the reports.

The Antigua and Barbuda government didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.

The Guardian reported that Guryev has denied being the owner of the Alfa Nero. Insider was unable to reach Guryev for comment.

The Treasury department said in August that the Alfa Nero was a "blocked property" of Guryev's, and that he reportedly bought the yacht for $120 million in 2014.

Guryev served in the Russian government until 2013, per the Treasury department. The UK described Guryev as an "oligarch" when it sanctioned him in April.

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Iconic yachts: On board Oceanco's striking 81m superyacht Alfa Nero

Big, black and beautiful, the 81.27 metre Oceanco motor yacht Alfa Nero  makes an incredibly powerful impression.

Although she is so large, the secret feature of Alfa Nero is that she is definitely not ‘high volume’ in the sense of trying to cram in every possible cubic metre of accommodation like a modern cruise ship. 

On the contrary, the first impression you receive on stepping aboard is of wide-open decks leading into big uncrowded rooms. The exterior and layout designers Nuvolari Lenard clearly agree with the notion that the ultimate luxury afloat is open space. In fact, with four decks to play with and only twelve guests to accommodate, they could afford to be exceptionally generous in their use of space.

The most spectacular visual trick is the first one you see: a sizeable swimming pool with a built-in current and an ‘infinity’ aft side where the water overflows across a large sloping sheet of glass to create a waterfall effect. 

This is particularly effective at night when both the pool and the waterfall are under-lit and the movement of the water creates an ever-changing light show. The pool is set in a wide expanse of open deck which extends well aft from the superstructure, creating a lido which can equally well serve as a party deck.

Having been one of the first designers to explore the possibilities of art deco afloat, Alberto Pinto has moved forward to the even more surprising era of pop art with the work of Roy Lichtenstein providing the inspiration. 

In addition to a number of Lichtenstein prints in his famous comic-strip style, Alberto Pinto has managed to create an entire decor based on them with zigs-zags of woodwork or kid leather, bold stripes of flooring, swirling patterns on upholstery, bright primary colours for lacquered woodwork, or high-gloss zebrano with its vibrant stripey grain.

Here you will find no gracious oak-panelled rooms, nor any varnished teak capping rails – all is new and modern. 

This is a big vessel with a big crew, capable of giving unrivalled standards of comfort and service to a fortunate few. The overall impression is of an incredibly spacious yacht with large, uncrowded guest areas and generous cabins, while exceptional use has been made of the exterior decks. Looking up at Alfa Nero ’s impressive outline, you might wonder what has become of pretty white yachts.

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