The captain of a Russian oligarch's $325 million superyacht was questioned by police over customs clearance after docking in Fiji, a report says

The superyacht Amadea - seen here in Turkey in 2020 - has been linked with Suleyman Kerimov, a Russian oligarch and businessman.

Osman Uras/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

• The captain of a Russian oligarch's yacht was questioned by police after arriving in Fiji, per Reuters.
• The $325 million yacht sailed for 18 days across the Pacific from Mexico to Fiji.
• The US embassy and EU delegations told Reuters they're working with Fiji police on the matter.

The captain of a Russian oligarch's $325 million superyacht has been questioned by Fiji police who said the vessel arrived in the Pacific nation without customs clearance, Reuters reported.

Fiji police investigated the yacht Amadea on Thursday night local time, two days after it arrived in the island nation. The vessel has been linked to Suleyman Kerimov, a Russian businessman and gold tycoon who was sanctioned by the US, UK, and EU.

The 350-foot vessel set sail from the port of Manzanillo in Mexico on March 24 and moored in Lautoka, Fiji, on Tuesday, per ship-tracking site Marine Traffic. The voyage across the Pacific Ocean took the yacht 18 days, per Marine Traffic.

Authorities have questioned Amadea's captain about how the luxury yacht docked in Fiji on Tuesday without having clearance from customs, an official at the National Police Command and Control Centre told Reuters.

Ports on the Pacific island require all vessels to obtain approval from the Ministry of Trade and Transport, the Ministry of Health, and the Immigration Department, according to The Fiji Times. A permanent secretary at the country's immigration department told The Fiji Times on Wednesday they hadn't received any requests for Amadea to dock on the island.

Asked about the Amadea's presence in Fiji, the country's health minister, Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete, told The Fiji Times: "We'll need clarification on that then we can comment on that," adding "we don't do Russians."

The US embassy and EU delegations in Fiji told The Fiji Times on Thursday that they were cooperating with authorities in Fiji regarding Amadea's presence. 

Local media reports in Fiji said police had seized the vessel. Chase Smith, the agent for Amadea who works for Baobab Marine, told Reuters the media reports weren't wholly factual, including regarding the ownership of the yacht. He told the newswire that he didn't know who the identity of the owner of Amadea.

The US embassy and the EU delegation in Fiji didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Kerimov, who a net worth of $14.3 billion, per Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, has been sanctioned by the US over alleged money laundering and is also among a list of oligarchs who have been sanctioned by the UK and EU over their ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. This means that any of his assets in those jurisdictions, including Amadea, could be at risk of seizure.

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