mega yacht hong kong

US alleges sanctioned Russian oligarch’s niece made payments for his $300M yacht

The yacht, known as the Amadea, was seized by officials in 2022, with the U.S. alleging billionaire Putin ally Suleiman Kerimov is the ultimate beneficial owner.

U.S. authorities claim to be one step closer to proving a seized $300 million mega yacht is owned by sanctioned Russian Suleiman Kerimov, according to new court filings that detail alleged payments for the boat from the oligarch’s niece.

The yacht, a 348-foot luxury vessel known as Amadea, was seized in Fiji in 2022 by local officials at the request of the United States, as part of the Justice Department’s ongoing efforts to identify and seize assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Kerimov, known for throwing lavish parties and for his reportedly close relationship with Vladimir Putin, was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018. Britain and the European Union later followed suit.

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However, since the Amadea’s seizure, another Russian oligarch, Eduard Khudainatov, who is not currently under U.S. sanctions, has claimed to be the yacht’s rightful owner — an assertion U.S. authorities deny.

Prosecutors allege that new documents show Kerimov’s niece, Alisa Gadzhieva, entered into a loan agreement with the company that owns the yacht, Errigal Marine Limited, and then made two payments to Khudainatov’s holding company, Invest International Finance Ltd, Intelligence Online reported .

“The United States takes sanction evasion seriously and will use all tools at its disposal to ensure that sanctioned individuals are held accountable for their crimes,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in an earlier statement . 

The ship belongs to an array of high-value luxury items linked to Kerimov, including private jets and sportscars, like a $650,000 Ferrari that Kerimov totaled in a fiery crash on the French Riviera in 2006. 

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The yacht’s seizure followed ICIJ’s Pandora Papers, which included revelations on the offshore financial empire of Kerimov and his closest associates. The investigation showed billions of dollars flowing through opaque offshore shell companies associated with Kerimov, and covert money flows tied to oligarchs and others close to the Kremlin. It also highlighted offshore professionals who have helped oligarchs secretly buy luxury assets like yachts and jets.

Gadzhieva’s brother, Kerimov’s nephew Nariman Gadzhiev, is also under U.S. sanctions for allegedly serving as an assistant and financial facilitator for Kerimov. ICIJ’s reporting showed that, in 2012, a firm registered in Gadzhiev’s name worked with Credit Suisse to secure a $67 million loan for the acquisition of a custom-built Boeing 737 Business Jet as well as a Bombardier Global Express jet. A few years later, an article in Forbes Russia described Kerimov as owning the same kind of Boeing jet.

The Amadea, which is currently in U.S. custody, has already cost over $7 million in taxpayer funds to maintain while the legal battle plays out, The Guardian reported.  

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A Russian Oligarch’s $500 Million Megayacht Just Mysteriously Arrived in Hong Kong

The lürssen vessel nord is connected to the third-richest man in russia., tori latham, tori latham's most recent stories.

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Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, authorities have been keeping an eye on the megayachts owned by Russian oligarchs and allies of Vladimir Putin. One such vessel just mysteriously turned up in Hong Kong.

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The 465-foot Lürssen vessel in question, which contains two helipads, a cinema and 20 luxury cabins, left Vladivostok on September 27 and was initially headed for the Vietnamese port of Da Nang. However, it soon changed its route to Hong Kong and has been anchored there since Wednesday night, according to Bloomberg. It has also changed its flag from the Cayman Islands to Russia. A spokesperson for Mordashov told the publication that he was currently in Moscow and declined to comment on the yacht’s movement.

Since Putin began his war in Ukraine in February, more than a dozen yachts owned by Russian oligarchs have been seized by Western governments as a form of punishment for the owners having ties to the Russian president. In total, the seized yachts add up to more than $2.25 billion, and others have been immobilized in ports and naval yards across Europe.

The US has even formed a special task force, KleptoCapture, to go after Russian billionaires’ assets. Earlier this year, the unit helped seize Amadea , a $325 million superyacht supposedly owned by the gold tycoon Suleiman Kerimov.

To evade capture, some yacht owners have moved their vessels to the sanction-free waters of Russia and Turkey. But now that Mordashov’s Nord has turned up in Hong Kong, it’s unclear what will happen to it. One thing’s for certain, though: Despite its considerable size, the 465-footer is proving to be quite elusive.

Tori Latham is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. She was previously a copy editor at The Atlantic, and has written for publications including The Cut and The Hollywood Reporter. When not…

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A $500 million superyacht anchored near Hong Kong reveals the world’s unwillingness to enforce the U.S.’s ‘heavy-handed’ sanctions against Russia

Hong Kong is captivated by a 466-foot-long superyacht anchored one-and-a-half miles off the city’s shoreline. The $500 million yacht named Nord , reportedly owned by sanctioned Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov, floats in plain view in the city’s harbor. 

The superyacht—the length of one-and-a-half football and featuring a helicopter hangar and swimming pool—has become the latest flashpoint in Hong Kong’s relations with Western governments. The U.S. is warning that the Chinese city’s tolerance of the Nord threatens its status as a financial center, while Hong Kong’s (U.S.-sanctioned) leader is saying officials will “ laugh off ” Western threats. 

But the Nord ’s presence in Hong Kong shows a weak spot in the sanctions the West has levied against Russian individuals and companies—namely, that much of the world is still able, if not willing, to let Russians in. 

“The West’s impressive unity on the sanctions front has so far not been met with similar enthusiasm among most non-Western states, particularly in Asia and Africa,” including many governments that have condemned Russia in the United Nations General Assembly, says Ryan Mitchell, a professor of international law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong .

Many non-Western countries have pre-existing economic ties with Russia, which means sanctions present a “relatively greater cost,” Mitchell says. Countries throughout the world continue to rely on Russian commodities and goods or hope to attract spending and investment from Russian individuals and companies. That means many non-Western countries, including many that sympathize with Ukraine’s plight, are unwilling to accept economic pain to support the U.S. position on sanctions.

Sitting off the coast

The Nord first arrived in Hong Kong last week, when eagle-eyed observers noticed that the yacht had anchored on the western end of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor.

At first, Hong Kong authorities gave a muted response to the yacht’s presence in the city. The local marine department said it would not , and in fact could not, enforce “unilateral sanctions imposed by other jurisdictions” like the U.S., while stating that the city would cooperate with sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.

The city’s rhetoric has hardened since then, as the yacht became another source of tensions between the U.S and Hong Kong (and, by extension, mainland China).

The U.S. accused Hong Kong of acting as a “safe haven” for those trying to flee sanctions, which “further calls into question the transparency of the business environment.”

In response, China’s foreign ministry called the U.S. comments “ misleading .” A spokesperson said that “Hong Kong’s reputation and status as an international financial center are globally recognized and brook no vilification.”

On Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said the city would not enforce Western sanctions on the Nord yacht. Lee, whom the U.S. government sanctioned over his role in the city’s crackdown on social unrest in 2019, said officials would “laugh off the so-called sanctions,” and called other U.S. measures towards Hong Kong officials a “barbaric act.”

In Mitchell’s view, Hong Kong has little choice but to openly refuse U.S. requests to enforce sanctions. The city “acknowledging the legitimacy of unilateral sanctions (i.e., those by one or more states acting outside of UN mechanisms) would contradict a key pillar of China’s views on international law and its enforcement,” Mitchell says. Beijing argues that Western sanctions against Moscow are illegal and counterproductive and has said it would continue to engage in “ normal trade cooperation ” with Russia.

That stance toward Western sanctions may encourage Russian individuals and companies to regard Hong Kong as a safe spot to park assets and raise capital. Russian companies are already inquiring about the possibility of basing operations in Hong Kong, including changing their registration or listing on the city’s stock exchange, reports Bloomberg . 

Yet banks in Hong Kong may be wary of engaging with Russian organizations, despite the city’s official refusal to enforce U.S. sanctions. The U.S. could impose secondary sanctions on companies or individuals that, in its view, help blacklisted entities evade sanctions, effectively barring banks from the U.S. dollar-based financial system. 

Even Beijing is concerned about the threat of secondary sanctions, with state-owned companies scaling back their presence in Russia for fear of U.S. regulatory scrutiny. 

Not just Hong Kong

While other countries may be less overt than Hong Kong in declining to enforce sanctions, “various other jurisdictions” have adopted the same position, says Mitchell. 

Russians have flocked to the United Arab Emirates, and specifically its financial hub of Dubai, to escape the scrutiny they face in places like Europe. Two Russian yachts popped up in Emirati ports in June this year. Russians snapped up property , and trading firms dealing in Russian commodities opened offices in Dubai to avoid European sanctions sanctions.

Officials in U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration have, at times, shown frustration with the UAE’s defiance of sanctions on Russia. “I am not happy at all with [the UAE’s] record at this point,” said Barbara Leaf, Biden’s top Middle East diplomat, in a June congressional hearing, adding that the White House plans to “drive a better alignment, shall we say, of effort.”

Yet the UAE appears to be quite comfortable with its neutral status. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the country after talks with UAE president Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Putin said the UAE’s neutral position “allows us to use your influence for moving toward resolving the situation” in Ukraine. 

Other countries throughout Asia have hesitated to isolate Russia entirely. India continues to purchase Russian energy and weapons, with Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar blaming the West’s refusal to sell arms to India as the reason for New Delhi’s “long standing relationship with Russia.”

Western allies are still engaging with Russia, too. Turkey, a member of NATO, has refused to join the West’s sanctions against Russia.

And even Japan, which sanctioned Russian banks and froze the country’s foreign reserves alongside Western nations, has wavered on abandoning Russia completely. Japanese companies have maintained a presence on Russian energy projects, like the Sakhalin-1 and 2 gas refineries in the country’s far east. Japanese carmaker Nissan only left the Russian market on Tuesday, seven months after the Ukraine invasion began.

Global resistance to completely isolate Russia is a stumbling block for Ukraine’s allies as they try to maintain economic pressure on Moscow and end the invasion. New sanctions would mean persuading more countries, already skeptical of sanctions, to do even more. 

“Many view U.S. sanctions practices in general as overly heavy-handed,” Mitchell said. 

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A russian oligarch’s $500m mega yacht is roiling u.s.-hong kong relations.

It was the mega yacht that got away. As Western sanctions hit Vladimir Putin's allies earlier this year following the Russian leader's invasion of Ukraine, their luxury yachts were seized one after another in jurisdictions around the world.

But not the Nord , a $500 million vessel tied to steel mogul Alexey Mordashov. This spring the ultra-luxurious yacht risked a collision by turning off its transponders and racing full steam ahead back to Vladivostok from the Indian Ocean, evading the grasp of Western authorities.

Now, infuriatingly to U.S. officials, it's docked for all to see in Hong Kong—and authorities there are doing nothing about it.

A spokesman for Hong Kong’s marine department  told the Financial Times :

“Certain countries may impose unilateral sanctions against certain places on the basis of their own considerations,” but the Hong Kong government "does not implement, nor do we have the legal authority to take action on, unilateral sanctions imposed by other jurisdictions."

Hong Kong's reputation

U.S. officials were not impressed. State Department officials told the U.K. paper that Hong Kong's "reputation as a financial centre depends on adherence to international laws and standards...The possible use of Hong Kong as a safe haven by individuals evading sanctions from multiple jurisdictions further calls into question the transparency of the business environment."

Others agreed.

It would “raise risks considerably if Hong Kong became widely seen as a popular destination for the assets of sanctioned Russian corporations or individuals," Ryan Mitchell, who teaches international law at Chinese University of Hong Kong, told the paper. He added, “Hong Kong-based corporations or individuals should be aware that they could later face secondary sanctions if they enter into business transactions or relationships with Russian sanction targets."

Mordashov has close ties with Putin and made his billions as chairman of Severstal, a Russian steel-and-mining giant.

Not all of his yachts got away, however. In April, Italy seized his Lady M superyacht in the port of Imperia after the European Union blacklisted Mordashov. That yacht, however, is valued at a mere $27 million and measures just 215 feet.

The Nord , by contrast, extends 465 feet and is valued at half a billion dollars. A Superyacht Times video about the vessel, made by a German shipyard, has garnered more than 570,000 views on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx9u4dcRmMM

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Coldplay confirm three concerts at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak stadium in April 2025

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Thursday, 19 Sep 2024

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Coldplay have announced they will hold three concerts at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak stadium in April next year, confirming earlier reports by the Post.

The British rock band revealed on Thursday their 2025 concert tour dates in Asia, with the three Hong Kong shows set to take place on April 9, 11 and 12 at the soon-to-open, 50,000-seat mega stadium in Kai Tak Sports Park.

The Asia tour will also include January concerts in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Mumbai in India. Four other shows will be held in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, in April.

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Coldplay’s first performances in Hong Kong since 2009 will be part of the sports park’s inaugural celebration, according to Klook, an “official experience partner” of the concerts.

The service booking platform is expected to start selling packages offering tour tickets and hotel stays at 10am on October 8. The package deals will offer one- or two-night stays in local hotels.

Earlier this month, the Post cited sources that the British band would perform in the city next year.

The concert series is one of the first major events lined up for the stadium, which is part of a HK$30 billion (US$3.8 billion) project expected to open during the first quarter of next year.

The park includes the main stadium, an indoor sports centre and a public sports ground, among other facilities. The stadium can operate at a maximum capacity of 65,000 people.

Coldplay performed at AsiaWorld-Expo in Chek Lap Kok for their last show in the city in 2009.

Hong Kong last year was left in the dust as major acts, including Coldplay and American singer Taylor Swift, skipped the city when they announced the Asian legs of their tours.

Coldplay also held shows in Manila and Bangkok earlier this year, while reports later emerged that Singapore had struck a six-figure deal with Swift for exclusive Southeast Asian performance rights, drawing ire from neighbouring countries such as Thailand.

The combined 12 shows by Swift and Coldplay in Singapore were believed to have generated up to S$450 million (US$348 million) in tourism receipts.

Industry insiders earlier expressed hope that the stadium in Kai Tak could help boost Hong Kong’s mega event economy, with many saying big acts were skipping the city over a lack of large-capacity venues.

The site is also a confirmed venue for multiple events under the 2025 National Games, which Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau will jointly host in November of next year.

More from South China Morning Post:

• Coldplay to perform at Hong Kong’s soon-to-open mega stadium early next year: sources
• After Coldplay, Hong Kong should woo other big acts like Oasis, Eason Chan for stadium launch
• As Coldplay’s return to Hong Kong sparks joy, the Post looks at past visits by global stars

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app . Copyright 2024.

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