ST. JOHN’S, CMC – On Tuesday, Antigua and Barbuda will officially seize the multi-million dollar super yacht, Alfa Nero, that has been moored in Falmouth Harbour for over a year on the southern coast of the island.
The seizure was scheduled for last Saturday but postponed after discussions with lawyers.
Port Manager Darwin Telemaque, speaking on the state-owned ABS TV, said several proposals had been received. He expects that when the yacht goes under the hammer on Tuesday, it “will leave because people are waiting to grab at this piece of machine.
“We have had quite a few offers, proposed auctions, and even offers to buy outright,” he said, adding those making the offers have given “all different types of numbers” and come from different countries like Bulgaria, Monaco, Australia, France, New Zealand Algeria, Saudi Arabia.
“A lot of people are interested in the ship. I can tell you this from the speed people are trying to move here. When the auction goes away, the yacht will leave because people are waiting to grab at this piece of machine,” Telemaque said.
Last month, the government dismissed suggestions that the owner of the multi-million dollar super yacht, Alfa Nero, is “a Mr. Alexander Mavrodi,” saying that international law enforcement agencies have advised that the beneficial owner of the vessel is the Russian Oligarch, Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev and his daughter, Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov.
In a statement, the government said that “the suggestion that a Mr. Alexander Mavrodi owns the vessel is unsubstantiated, adding “certainly, no such claim has been made to the competent authorities in Antigua and Barbuda.”
It said under the island’s laws, the Port Manager gave the beneficial owner of the Alfa Nero 10 days’ public notice from March 21 “to present ownership documents and to remove the vessel from the territory of Antigua and Barbuda.
“Consequently, the vessel will be seized and offered for sale by auction in the interest of the safety of the harbor and the well-being of the economy and the people of Antigua and Barbuda,” the government statement added.
Parliament has already passed an amendment to the Port Authority Act, providing “the clear direction which the administrator requires to ensure that the vessel, after ten days of advertising, will become the state’s property by law.
“It will then cease being the property of a sanctioned person, nor will the vessel be sanctioned property. Under those conditions, a sale of the Alfa Nero will cause the resources realized to become the state’s property.”
The government said that no owner had stepped forward since the vessel has been sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom and that discussions with US government officials have taken place.
The yacht, which some international media said is valued at US$81 million, is owned by Guryev, who has been sanctioned by Western countries following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
The US government has said that Guryev, 62, who made a multi-billion dollar fortune from the Russian fertilizer company, PhosAgro, is the owner of Alfa Nero according to the US government, which imposed sanctions on him last year.
The US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it had “identified Alpha Nero, a Cayman Islands flagged yacht that he reportedly bought for US$120m in 2014,
The yacht features a 12-meter infinity pool, a Jacuzzi, a spa, a beauty room, and a helipad. Guryev, subjected to United Kingdom government sanctions in April 2022, denied being the owner.