By Robert A. Emmanuel
Another legal roadblock threatens to stymie government’s plans to auction the Alfa Nero superyacht after the alleged owners applied for an emergency injunction in the Court of Appeal.
Government plans to sell the luxury boat to the highest bidder at a televised auction set for 10am Friday.
Andrew O’Kola, the attorney representing the apparent owners, told Observer yesterday that the court would likely decide on the matter before then.
Earlier this week Observer revealed that a BVI-based firm claiming to own the boat and another applicant with interest in artwork aboard it had been granted permission to apply for a judicial review into the Port Authority’s decision to sell the yacht.
The same High Court judgement gave the green light for the sale to proceed.
“On the one hand, the matter is before the High Court as we have been granted leave for judicial review on some grounds, and on the other hand it is before the Court of Appeal with respect to the emergency application for interim relief,” O’Kola said.
In a separate letter to media houses, O’Kola wrote, “Our clients are pleased that the High Court granted permission for judicial review on the basis that the proposed sale of the yacht may be unlawful, but disappointed that the High Court did not also grant an injunction to stop the sale going ahead until the legality of what the government is proposing can be properly considered by the courts.
“To be clear, however, whether the auction goes ahead [Friday] or not, anyone intending to bid for the yacht needs to know that the government’s argument that it has the legal power to transfer ownership of the yacht to a purchaser is still the subject of an ongoing challenge in the courts.”
The 267ft vessel, valued at US$115 million by the government, has been moored at the Falmouth Harbour since February 2022 and is deemed to have been abandoned.
The government wants to auction the superyacht, in order to prevent an environmental disaster, to the highest bidder whose sealed bid will be revealed by an unnamed three-man panel.
The vessel has been linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrey Guryev. However court papers cite BVI-based company Flying Dutchman Overseas as the owner. Flying Dutchman is said to be managed by Opus Private Ltd, a fiduciary services company based in the Channel Islands.
Sanctions related to the vessel were previously lifted by the US government to assist Antigua and Barbuda in the sale.
On Thursday, Observer media also spoke to Attorney General Steadroy Benjamin who said that he was unperturbed by the injunction application.
“I am not too bothered by that because I don’t think that the application has any merit…and I am sure that the sale will take place as planned,” he said.
He also questioned the timing of the owners’ legal challenges.
“It is partly strange that over a year and months nobody has come forward, but just two or three days prior to the sale everybody is coming out of the woodwork,” he added.
Benjamin’s comments contradict claims in legal papers that suggest the owners had attempted to make contact on several prior occasions.
Meanwhile, CEO of the Antigua and Barbuda Port Authority, Darwin Telemaque, held a press briefing with reporters on Wednesday in anticipation of today’s auction.
Telemaque said that the calculation of debts accrued on the vessel was ongoing, explaining that individuals were still coming forward with alleged expenses.
“We have a lot of people coming out of the woodwork and we have people saying left and right that they [are owed] and there are some trivial numbers in some cases…but I must say that there has been nothing outlandish that we have seen in terms of cost…but you can imagine that a vessel like that has gone through so many countries and had so many persons serving it, every single person that has an outstanding invoice…we are still tabulating that,” he said.
If the sale of the vessel is allowed to continue by the Court of Appeal, Telemaque said that the highest bidder will have seven days to deposit their bid into the Treasury. If they fail to do so, the second highest bid will then become the preferred bidder.
He also said that if the situation arises that two bids are of the same value, both individuals would be required to resubmit bids.
Telemaque also explained that Tuesday was the final date for any bids to have been received, as any later bids were likely to be too late for a due diligence review by the government along with the US Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) which has been assisting in this regard.
“It is not like you can just walk in today and say I want to bid on the Alfa Nero…The process had to be executed in that manner to ensure that the sanction status of the vessel could not have been changed.
“The US government was involved in the process, and they had acted in good faith to remove the sanctions as they were directly involved with us in assessing the nature of the individuals who intended, or expressed the intent, to bid on the vessel,” he said.
Telemaque assured reporters that no bidders accepted by the government were on any sanctions list as they had been cleared by OFAC.