A £38 million ($47.8 million) superyacht, which was detained to great fanfare by the UK last year, is set to become the center of a London legal fight as its Russian tycoon owner fights to free the vessel.
(Bloomberg) — A £38 million ($47.8 million) superyacht, which was detained to great fanfare by the UK last year, is set to become the center of a London legal fight as its Russian tycoon owner fights to free the vessel.
Sergei Naumenko, a Russian property developer and food importer who isn’t on any sanctions list, sued the UK’s Department of Transport to lift the freeze and is seeking damages, according to a ruling published Wednesday. A full hearing to decide the fate of the yacht, called Phi, will take place later in July. The London court describes Naumenko as the beneficial owner of the yacht.
The boat was impounded as European governments and the US raced to freeze the most high-profile of Russian assets following the invasion of Ukraine last year. Since then, governments enforcing sanctions around the world have detained more than a dozen superyachts with links to wealthy Russians. The vessels are worth at least $4 billion.
The 192-foot vessel, which was in London for finishing touches and has never been used, was held under a broad regulation that allowed the UK to block any yacht or plane owned, operated or controlled by a person connected with Russia.
The UK Department for Transport and lawyers for Naumenko declined to comment.
The Phi was berthed in a London dock near Canary Wharf, when it was investigated by government and officials from the National Crime Agency.
When it was detained by then-Transport Secretary Grant Shapps at the end of March last year, he posted a video on TikTok calling the owner an oligarch and “a friend of Putin,” an assertion Naumenko denies. The vessel’s captain told Bloomberg that Naumenko has never met the Russian president.
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