By Robert A. Emmanuel
Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, the daughter of Russian oligarch Andrey Guryev, has lost another attempt to prevent the sale of the superyacht, Alfa Nero.
The Court of Appeal ruled against her appeal of the High Court decision by Justice Rene Williams to refuse an injunction application.
The Alfa Nero has been embroiled in a legal battle over its auction and sale by the Antiguan government for the last six months.
Dr David Dorsett, who represents Guryeva-Motlokhov, expressed disappointment at the decision but stated that the constitutional case against the government remains unaffected.
“The Court of Appeal dismissed the claim of my client, but it held that she has a serious case as far as the constitutionality of the Port Authority Amendment Act 2023 was concerned, and it was not a frivolous case as the government has suggested,” he said.
The 267-ft vessel has been in Antiguan waters for nearly two years and has been in the government’s possession since April. The government continues to pay a weekly bill of US $28,000 to keep the vessel afloat.
Dr Dorsett claimed that the situation could have been avoided “had the government not ignored the approaches to it by the owner of the Alfa Nero prior to the auction”.
He added that “you can’t just seize a person’s property conveniently and think that the person who has an interest in the property will just lie down dead; it’s just not going to happen”.
The government has struggled, since the lawsuit brought by Guryeva-Motlokhov, to officially sell off the superyacht as both Eric Schmidt, the first preferred buyer at the June auction, and Warren Halle have withdrawn their bids for the vessel.
As the second preferred bidder, Halle filed a lawsuit against the government, alleging that it failed to adhere to its own auction rules after Schmidt could not complete the transaction within a seven-working day period. The government is reportedly seeking to negotiate with Halle over the issue.
Meanwhile, Dr Dorsett believes that his client’s legal battle against the government could last another year if the matter makes its way through the Caribbean court system.
“There is a hearing in December which is to determine whether certain evidence that the government has put forward in the defence of its case is proper evidence. I suspect a substantive hearing on the High Court action is not going to be possible until maybe June of next year and then, of course, you will have to see how that decision goes.
“If there is an appeal, that may take another year and if there is a further appeal to the Privy Council, that may be another year or eight months,” he claimed.