- The US is trying to seize a $300 million yacht in Fiji that's linked to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
- Its crew used code names for the ship's owner and family, according to court documents obtained by CBS.
- Their emails referenced the sanctioned oligarch as "G0" and his wife as "G-1," the FBI alleges.
The crew of the $300 million "Amadea" superyacht that the US claims is owned by a sanctioned Russian oligarch used code names for the ship's owner and his family members, the FBI alleged in an affidavit obtained by CBS News.
The FBI's affidavit claimed emails found on the ship's computers referred to the alleged owner Suleiman Kerimov as "G0," his wife as "G-1," and their two children as "G-2" and "G-3," according to CBS.
Kerimov was sanctioned by the US in 2018 following Russia's invasion of Crimea and armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine. In 2017, the billionaire, who is said to have "close ties" to Russia's president Vladimir Putin, was accused of bringing suitcases filled with hundreds of millions of euros into France and laundering the funds through luxury real estate purchases.
Court documents show that Kerimov owned the Amadea after he was sanctioned by the US, the Department of Justice said in a May press release. The department claims the oligarch used the US dollar and US financial institutions for the Amadea's "support and maintenance," which can cost between $25 and $30 million a year.
The 348-foot Amadea, equipped with a helipad, pool, and eight cabins, is one of the largest superyachts in the world.
But Feizal Haniff, the lawyer representing the company that owns the Amadea, said the yacht actually is owned by a Russian oil executive named Eduard Khudainatov, who is not sanctioned.
Fijian law enforcement claims it found only one email from the crew mentioning Khudainatov, compared to "multiple" crew emails discussing trips taken by the Kerimov family this winter, the FBI affidavit said, per the CBS report. The US Justice Department, Fiji's Court of Appeal, and Haniff did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The code names allegedly used by the Amadea's crew are examples of tactics used to obscure the ownership of a sanctioned individual's overseas assets in order to avoid seizure. For purchasing luxury yachts and real estate as well as multi-million dollar artwork, a certain level of buyer anonymity is possible through the complex layering of shell companies, experts previously have told Insider.
Late last week, a Fijian court dismissed Haniff's appeal, which was preventing the Amadea's seizure by US officials. He has until this Friday to appeal.