"The Russian superyacht symbolizes the complexity of asset extraction."."

"The legal battle over a luxurious superyacht has become a symbol of the difficulties accompanying the confiscation of Russian assets with the onset of the war in Ukraine. In investigating the case of the £54 million yacht Alfa Nero, BBC British journalists highlighted a British company assisting a Russian oligarch in claiming that such mega-assets do not actually belong to him."

This week, the court proceedings are resuming in Antigua.

Initiated by the daughter of Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev, with the aim of contesting the confiscation of the superyacht Alfa Nero. The government of the island wishes to sell the vessel and keep the proceeds. As a result, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt won the auction, paying £54 million, but he withdrew his bid due to restrictions.

Guryev's daughter claims that she is the sole adult beneficiary of the trust fund that owns the yacht, not her billionaire father.

In investigating this disputed situation, the BBC uncovered assets worth around 500 million pounds linked to a sanctioned billionaire.

It was also established that the trust structures, legally managed by a British company for many years, allowed Guriyev to claim that the yachts and London properties they identified do not actually belong to him. Connection to the Kremlin.

During the tour in Falmouth Harbour, almost in the exclusive area of Antigua, a port employee standing on the wooden deck of the yacht was open to discussing its features, but when we asked who it belonged to before, his tone changed.

“I don’t know,” he said, avoiding his gaze on the shiny deck.

Before the yacht was seized in April, the U.S.

The U.S. Treasury Department claims that Gureyev is part of a group of "Kremlin-linked elites" who "generate significant income for the Russian regime."

Guryev made his fortune with the fertilizer company PhosAgro, which he co-founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

At the time of PhosAgro's inclusion in the London Stock Exchange in 2011, Guryev purchased the Witanhurst estate, which was initially uninhabitable, and transformed it into one of the most expensive properties in London, valued at around 300 million pounds.

The documents of Company House, submitted in May 2023, show that the Witanhurst estate, as well as the yacht Alfa Nero, actually belong to the Guriyev family and are linked to an address in Guernsey, a British Crown dependency.

And these are not the only valuable assets associated with the same address in the Channel Islands.

Luminosity is one of the largest hybrid superyachts in the world.

The length is 107.5 meters. It has its own helipad, as well as a separate pool and jacuzzi, and several dozen crew members.

Immediately after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, "Luminosity" left the port in northern Italy and arrived in non-EU Montenegro on March 10. This happened the day after Guriyev's son was sanctioned by the EU.

When the state inspector examined the yacht, he found that it was also linked to the same address in Guernsey.

Upon visiting this address, we discovered the modest offices of the parent company Opus Private, which specializes in wealth management and helps "some of the richest people in the world manage and protect their assets."