The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has denied the submission of Eduard Yurievich Khudainatov and Millemarin Investments Ltd.
Claimants argued that the seizure of the Amadea yacht in Fiji may have violated the Fourth Amendment, because the affidavit of an FBI agent filed in support of the initial seizure may contain false or misleading statements regarding the ownership of the Amadea.
The Motor Yacht Amadea, a 348-foot luxury vessel reported to be worth worth over $300 million was seizured by officials in 2022.
At first, the United States Attorney for the Southern District declared that the Amadea was beneficially owned by the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov and that the yacht was operated in violation of relevant sanctions against Kerimov
On April 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) determined that Kerimov benefited from the regime of Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, and played a key role in advancing Russia’s malign activities.
Later, lawyers admitted that the owner of the yacht was not Kerimov, but Eduard Khudainatov.
Eduard Khudainatov was the head of Russian oil company, Rosneft.
