A $325 million superyacht seized by the US from a sanctioned Russian oligarch arrived in San Diego Bay in California on Monday.
The 106-metre-long Amadea flew an American flag as it sailed past the retired aircraft carrier the USS Midway and under the Coronado Bridge.
The Department of Justice said the Amadea was safely docked after a transpacific journey of 8,047 kilometres “and will remain in the custody of the US government, pending its anticipated forfeiture and sale”.
The FBI linked the Amadea to oligarch Suleiman Kerimov and the vessel became a target of Task Force KleptoCapture, launched in March to seize the assets of Russian citizens with the aim of pressuring Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
The US said Mr Kerimov had secretly bought the vessel last year through various shell companies.
Washington won a legal battle in Fiji to take the Cayman Islands-flagged superyacht earlier this month. The Amadea made a stop in Honolulu Harbour en route to the US mainland.
“The successful seizure and transport of Amadea would not have been possible without extraordinary cooperation from our foreign partners in the global effort to enforce US sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war in Ukraine,” the Justice Department said.
