A federal appeals court in New York ruled Monday that Russian billionaire Eduard Khudainatov cannot block the U.S. government from forfeiting the $300 million superyacht Amadea. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that Khudainatov lacks the necessary legal standing to contest the seizure of the 348-foot vessel, effectively ending his bid to reclaim the luxury craft.
The three-judge panel unanimously affirmed a lower court's decision, siding with the Department of Justice’s assertion that the yacht is actually owned by Suleiman Kerimov. Kerimov, a Russian oligarch and one of the world's wealthiest individuals, has been sanctioned by the Biden administration over his ties to the Russian government following the invasion of Ukraine.
The court determined that Khudainatov, the former head of Rosneft OJSC, served as a "straw owner" to help Kerimov bypass international sanctions. The ruling establishes that individuals who merely hold title on behalf of another party cannot claim injury when the property is seized by federal authorities.
"Straw owners who hold the title for somebody else do not have Article III standing to contest the property’s forfeiture because they do not themselves suffer an injury when the property is taken," wrote Judge Raymond J. Lohier Jr. in the court's opinion. Judges Barrington D. Parker and Sarah A. L. Merriam joined in the ruling, solidifying the legal precedent for the case.
The legal battle centers on a September 2021 memorandum of agreement. In that deal, Khudainatov’s company, Millemarin Investments Ltd., purportedly sold the Amadea for €225 million—approximately $262 million at the time—to a Cayman Islands entity created less than a week before the transaction.
Following the agreement, the court found that Khudainatov held only "bare title" to the vessel. Judge Lohier noted that Khudainatov and his family ceased using the boat after the sale, and investigators found no personal belongings on board when the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture task force seized the yacht in Fiji in 2022.
The government successfully argued that the 2021 transaction was a facade intended to obscure Kerimov’s true ownership. Because Khudainatov failed to demonstrate a "facially colorable interest" in the yacht after the transfer, the court concluded he had no standing to challenge the forfeiture proceedings.
Legal representatives for Khudainatov, including teams from Shapiro Arato Bach LLP, Brune Law PC, and Ford O’Brien Landy LLP, have spent the litigation attempting to prove his ownership. The case is filed as United States of America v. Khudainatov in the Second Circuit.
