The Antigua and Barbuda government has hinted at the possibility of going before the London-based Privy Council as it seeks to auction off for the section time the now infamous multi-million dollar luxury yacht, the Alfa Nero.
The government had last year auctioned the 267ft super yacht that its seized in April 2023 to the US-based tech billionaire Eric Schmidt for US$67 million, who later withdrew his bid citing legal delays preventing him from acquiring the right to the vessel.
The Gaston Browne administration has been plagued by legal challenges, primarily by Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, the daughter of Russian oligarch Andrey Guryev who claims that the vessel is under her name and the government had no right to seize it.
The boat came to attention when Andrey Guryev, a known close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, appeared on international sanctions lists after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The yacht has been tied up in Falmouth Harbour for almost two years with the government saying it poses both an environmental and a security risk.
Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister, Lionel Hurst, told a news conference that the Solicitor General and others have been before the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council twice “and they are at the stage where we are awaiting a decision of the Appeals Court and it might be they might appeal to the Privy Council’ for a third time.
“Our expectation is that they (the challenges) will forget it because they are not going to win in the court system,” he added.
In addition to the ongoing court battle, the government is also the other preferred bidder in last June’s auction, Warren Halle, who has sued the government over an alleged failure to adhere to its own auction rules which would have seen him named the preferred bidder after Schmidt failed to pay the money to the government within the agreed seven days, among other issues.
“If the bidding is re-opened and we think we have to re-open the bidding because the second highest bidder had offered US$65 million and …he is now attempting to lower that bid significantly in an effort to get it at a bargain basement rate.
“But that’s not the object of this exercise,” Hurst said.
Media reports here said that the Alfa Nero continues to cost the public, through the Citizenship by Investment fund, US$28,000 weekly in maintenance costs as well as paying salaries for crew members.
No date has yet been given when the new auction will be held.
