In 2022, motoryacht Amadea was embroiled in a legal tussle between her owner and the United States. Sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov’s $325 million ship sailed to San Diego after the US won the legal battle to seize the megayacht in Fiji. Now sailing under the US flag, the 348-footer remained moored in San Diego since June 2022, and despite not having used it for over a year, the owner, Kerimov, may have to shell out $46 million for the boat.
On August 11, 2023, the luxury vessel was spotted after several months cruising aimlessly around San Diego. The gorgeous six-decker may have cost the American taxpayers a hefty $34,000 daily to maintain and refuel the pleasure craft, but now it is the tycoon’s turn to pay up.
Per the Isle of Man Today, $46 million of tax will have to be paid on a superyacht following its deregistration for VAT. According to court documents, the superyacht is owned by Nereo Management Limited.
The company was registered in the Cayman Islands with the sole purpose of purchasing the yacht for $235 million from Lürssen in March 2017. What followed was registering to the Isle of Man for VAT on the 17th, describing itself as a ‘worldwide charter business.’
The Lurssen ship was imported by Nereo on March 28 and accounted for import VAT of some $46 million. It reclaimed input VAT in the same amount on its first VAT return.
Then, on November 24, 2017, while the yacht was outside the EU in Montenegro, Nereo applied to deregister for VAT. Isle of Manx Customs and Excise raised an assessment in May 2021, seeking payment of output VAT to the tune of $63 million plus a penalty of just under $10 million. The firm Nereo argued no VAT was owed as the yacht had been outside the Isle of Man at the time of deregistration.
The case went to the VAT and duties tribunal, where the chairman, Judge Jonathan Cannan, ruled that Nereo was required to account for the output tax. The judge stated the value should be reduced to reflect the boat’s market value at the time of deregistration; also, the penalty imposed should be reduced. This resulted in Amadea’s owners owed tax amounted to $46 million rather than $63 million.
Amadea was seized in Fiji by OFAC in 2022 by the United States in connection to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov. With Amadea now under the control of the US, we wonder who will pay this enormous fee.
Billionaire Suleiman Kerimov owns the Amadea superyacht-
The Russian tycoon went from $13 billion last year to $7.8 billion this year thanks to the Russia-Ukraine war and its effects on wealthy Russian billionaires. The Polyus boss (Russia’s biggest gold producer), who formerly held 76% of the publicly traded company, no longer had any economic interest or ownership rights in Polyus. This deducted his wealth by a whopping $3 billion in October 2022. The economics graduate, a native of Dagestan, made a career investing in distressed assets in Russia and on Sberbank and Gazprom shares. In the last year, he has also lost a $71 million, 215-foot superyacht, Lady M, and a Sardinian property worth $116 million to sanctions.
