The Antigua and Barbuda government is set to auction off a multi-million dollar superyacht said to be owned by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrey Guryev which the government claims has been abandoned in the Caribbean since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
Last month, Antigua warned the owner of the Alfa Nero superyacht, which flies the Cayman Islands flag, that they had 10 days to claim the vessel or it would be sold to the highest bidder.
The information minister, Melford Nicholas, said Alfa Nero had been abandoned in Falmouth harbour in Antigua since February 2022 and the government was “trying to prevent a future hazard since the luxury vessel is not being maintained by its owner”.
Guryev, 62, who made a $10bn fortune from the Russian fertiliser company PhosAgro, is the owner of Alfa Nero according to the US government, which imposed sanctions on him last year. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it had “identified Alfa Nero, a Cayman Islands flagged yacht that AG Guryev reportedly bought for $120m in 2014, as blocked property of AG Guryev”.
According to the government, the vessel received more than $500,000 worth of fuel during her stay in Antigua. Funds from the sale will be used to pay the yacht’s captain and crew as well as other creditors that have been providing fuel and supplies. The Port Authority Act was recently amended and passed in Parliament allowing for the sale of the vessel, which has been valued at $81 million.
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