UPDATE, NOVEMBER 24, 2023: The Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal from Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, the Russian citizen who claims she owns Alfa Nero and who was trying to stop the sale of the yacht. Her lawyer, though, believes she still has a case. He tells a local newspaper that they have a pending court challenge regarding the constitutional validity of the amended Port Authority Act. The amendment permitted the bid for Alfa Nero to occur.
That bid process also led the government of Antigua and Barbuda to indicate in September that it is open to working with Warren Halle, who had filed a lawsuit over his bid for Alfa Nero. However, “it will be on different terms … and those terms have not yet been fully determined,” says Lionel Hurst, chief of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office. He made the remarks during a press briefing on September 15.
Meanwhile, Michael Moore, the founding partner of the law firm Moore & Company, which represents Halle, told us in an exclusive interview in September, “We did everything correctly, and we are the winning bidder.” He added that his client filed the lawsuit because “you can’t just change the rules,” referencing the bid process. The terms specified the yacht would pass to the second-highest bidder, who was Halle, if the initial winner failed to produce funds within seven days. Eric Schmidt, the top bidder, never submitted the full payment, and recently declined to acquire the yacht. Moore further indicated that he informed Antiguan authorities that Halle was ready to proceed with taking the yacht title if the Court of Appeal dismissed the then-pending lawsuit from Guyeva-Motlokhov. “We haven’t finished negotiations,” he noted.
Read on for the original article.
Less than three months after the government of Antigua and Barbuda auctioned Alfa Nero, two significant complications have arisen. Firstly, Eric Schmidt, the American venture capitalist and philanthropist who placed the winning bid for Alfa Nero, has withdrawn it. Secondly, the person with the second-highest bid has filed a lawsuit.
The Alfa Nero auction concluded in June, with Schmidt submitting a $67.6-million bid according to government officials. The 269-footer (82-meter) arrived in Falmouth Harbor in February 2022, remaining unused for more than a year. The government declared Alfa Nero “abandoned” in March 2023 due to lack of maintenance, the crew going unpaid, and the fuel provider being unpaid. This led up to the government revising its Port Authority Act to hold the auction on June 16.
Under the terms of the auction, Schmidt had seven days to furnish full payment. Otherwise, his winning bid for Alfa Nero would become nullified, and the superyacht would go to the second-highest bidder. Over the past several weeks, Antiguan officials have indicated they were continuing to work with Schmidt, who held off on providing payment. A spokesperson for Schmidt did not respond to our request for comment on the new development. However, Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the United States, tells Bloomberg that “legal wrangling” led Schmidt to conclude “that we could not give him clear title of the ship.” Sanders insists, though, that “the ship belongs to us, it is owned by the government.”
The “legal wrangling” refers to repeated lawsuits from Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov. Guryeva-Motlokhov, a Russian citizen, claims she is the owner. While she lost her initial lawsuit in Antigua’s High Court to void the auction, she has filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal, which is still pending. Notably, Guyeva-Motlokhov is the daughter of Andrey Guryev, a Russian fertilizer magnate who the U.S. Department of Justice says bought the yacht in 2014. Guryev is currently under sanctions, related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has repeatedly denied owning Alfa Nero, instead saying he only cruised aboard.
In other legal developments, Warren Halle, an American real estate developer and experienced yacht owner, has filed a lawsuit against the twin-island nation’s government, too. Although he remained unidentified at the conclusion of the auction, he placed the second-highest bid, for $66 million. Halle filed an injunction in July in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court against the government of Antigua and Barbuda. It calls for blocking the sale of Alfa Nero to Schmidt, since the government failed to uphold the auction terms.
Interestingly, Halle’s injunction states that he met with Gaston Browne, the country’s prime minister, in March of this year to discuss acquiring the yacht. The date precedes the country’s formal seizure of Alfa Nero. (This took place after the government publicly requested the owner step forward or face forfeiture at auction.) Halle claims Brown asked him to submit an offer for the yacht, higher than one already received, in fact. He further claims Brown indicated he could get parliamentary approval for the bid. Halle therefore says he instructed his bank to transfer $10 million to his attorney’s trust account as a partial payment. But, the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control seized the funds, since Alfa Nero was under sanctions at the time, as blocked property.
Additionally, Halle’s injunction indicates, he learned in late May that Browne lacked the authority to grant him the yacht. Therefore, he would need to participate in the auction. Halle is seeking nearly $5.7 million, to recoup expenses like his travel to meet with Browne and hiring a captain. The sum further includes anticipated charter revenue.
We contacted Darwin Telemaque, the CEO of the Antigua Port Authority, for comment on the lawsuit and on whether the government is in negotiations with Halle. We did not receive a response by press time.
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