Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently paid $67.6 million for a stranded superyacht that has been linked to a sanctioned Russian billionaire. The Russian chemical mogul's daughter now says she's its true owner and wants it back, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Schmidt bought the 267-foot Alfa Nero at auction last month. The US Treasury said that the yacht was bought by Andrey Guryev for $120 million in 2014 and Antigua and Barbuda said in a March 2023 notice that the vessel that it was "owned/controlled" by Guryev, but the billionaire has repeatedly denied being the owner.
A legal representative for Guryev told Bloomberg in March that he "neither owns nor controls the Alfa Nero and has simply used the vessel from time to time under commercial charter since 2014."
Guryev, whose wealth Bloomberg estimates to be at $9.75 billion, is the co-founder and largest shareholder of fertilizer giant PhosAgro. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine he was sanctioned by the US Treasury, which described him as a "known close associate" of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Guryev was also sanctioned by the UK, and his son was sanctioned by the US, the EU, and the UK.
Alfa Nero had been anchored by the Caribbean island of Antigua since last spring, and FBI agents searched the vessel in August. Local authorities say the yacht was abandoned. Antigua and Barbuda took control of the vessel this April, and mounting crew expenses left authorities eager to auction it off.
But on Wednesday, lawyers for Guryev's daughter Yulia Gurieva-Motlokhov filed an appeal saying that she was the vessel's true owner, Bloomberg reported.
She said in a filing that she was the "sole adult discretionary beneficiary of the 'Tyne Trust' and 'Flagstaff Trust,'" which own two companies that own both the Alfa Nero and the artwork on board, per Bloomberg. Her previous attempt to stop the auction had failed, Bloomberg reported.
