Was a mega yacht seized in CA recently?
Executive summary
A high-profile Russian-linked megayacht, the Amadea, was seized at the request of U.S. authorities in 2022 and has been docked in San Diego since being brought there from Fiji, with the U.S. Justice Department pursuing formal forfeiture and an eventual sale; news outlets reported a U.S. court approved the sale after years of legal battles and it was listed for auction in 2025 [1][2][3]. Competing ownership claims and long-running litigation have complicated the process, meaning the yacht remains a contested asset even as the government moves to monetize it [1][4].
1. The seizure and how the Amadea came to California
The Justice Department executed a seizure warrant for the Amadea in 2022, initially impounding the vessel in Fiji and later transporting it to San Diego, where it has remained moored while the government pursued forfeiture proceedings [1][2]. Local reporting and federal filings tie the vessel to allegations that it was beneficially owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov, a claim the DOJ has used to justify the seizure in the wake of sanctions tied to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine [4][2].
2. The tangled legal fight over ownership
The Amadea’s public provenance has been contested from the start: lawyers for other figures have repeatedly challenged the U.S. assertion that Kerimov is the ultimate owner, producing counterclaims and depositions that prolonged litigation internationally for years [1][4]. Reporting describes a web of shell companies and disputed transfers—common in ultra-high-value maritime holdings—that courts have had to unravel, and those disputes explain why the vessel sat in San Diego for extended months while the government prepared formal confiscation paperwork [2][1].
3. Maintenance costs, public attention, and political context
While tied up in litigation, the Amadea accumulated significant maintenance and storage bills paid by U.S. authorities, with local reporting estimating costs near $1 million per month at times, a fact that heightened political scrutiny and media attention about taxpayer exposure and the optics of storing a luxury vessel on the public dime [4][2]. The seizure was framed by Justice Department officials as part of a broader effort to target “ill‑begotten gains” of sanctioned elites—an explicitly political message that has also been used to justify aggressive pursuit of seized assets [3][5].
4. Outcome to date: court approval, auction listings, and lingering disputes
Federal courts ultimately authorized the sale of the yacht after multi‑year litigation, and by mid‑2025 the Amadea was publicly listed for auction, with brokers and news outlets reporting the vessel was being offered for sale and that prospective buyers could acquire it at a discount relative to its reported original value [1][3][6]. Even with court approval and auction activity, reporting indicates legal maneuvers and ownership claims continued to surface, underscoring that “seized” in the operational sense—vessel held by authorities—was only one step in a longer judicial process to convert the asset to government custody and then to cash [1][2].
5. What “recently” means and the bottom line
If “recently” refers to the past few years, then yes: the Amadea was seized in 2022, moved to California, and the federal government initiated and later completed legal steps leading to an approved sale in 2025, with media coverage and auction listings through 2025 and reporting into early 2026 tracking the outcome [1][3][7]. However, the case illustrates the difference between an initial operational seizure and the drawn‑out civil‑forfeiture and ownership litigation that follows; news accounts from local San Diego outlets, national reporting, and specialist yachting sites corroborate both the seizure and the protracted legal and logistical aftermath [2][4][7].