SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal decide in New York granted the attorneys of a Russian lady permission Monday to situation subpoenas to entry the monetary data of Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister and different officers concerned within the sale of a megayacht that her father had abandoned.
The attorneys should first notify Prime Minister Gaston Browne and others earlier than serving subpoenas on the Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York and the U.S.-based Clearing Home Funds Co.
“The monetary data will communicate for themselves,” stated Martin De Luca, with Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.
He is among the attorneys for Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, who claims she is the rightful proprietor of the Alfa Nero megayacht, which remained anchored off Antigua for a pair months earlier than the native authorities seized and bought it final 12 months.
Browne didn’t instantly reply to a message for remark concerning the decide’s ruling.
The attorneys for Guryeva-Motlokhov alleged in a March 11 submitting in federal courtroom that Browne’s administration has not launched paperwork associated to the $40 million sale of the yacht, as soon as owned by Andrey Guryev, a Russian businessman who based a fertilizer firm and labored within the Russian authorities.
He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Division in August 2022, and the megayacht was faraway from the sanctions checklist in June 2023 so Antigua may liquidate it.
Antigua’s opposition leaders even have demanded particulars of how the proceeds from the yacht sale have been spent.
Browne has stated that particulars associated to the yacht sale are public. On Sunday, he despatched The Related Press a number of paperwork he stated confirmed these particulars.
“That is irrefutable proof that the declare that $10M is lacking from the proceeds is a fabrication,” he wrote in a message, referring to claims made within the March 11 submitting.
Nevertheless, key data was redacted in financial institution cost/switch kinds that made it troublesome to substantiate particulars of the loans and advances.
Browne additionally accused Guryeva-Motlokhov of defamation.
In July 2024, Browne’s spouse, Maria Browne, Antigua’s Minister of Housing, instructed The Antigua Observer newspaper that the proceeds have been used to repay authorities debt. Days earlier than the report was revealed, the prime minister had stated his administration was contemplating utilizing the cash to construct a resort.
Attorneys for Guryeva-Motlokhov are searching for paperwork and data associated to wire transfers and different transactions involving the prime minister and 6 different individuals, in addition to 12 entities, previously 5 years.
The individuals focused embody Browne, his spouse, their son and Antigua’s normal accountant and its port supervisor.
The entities embody West Indies Oil Co. Ltd., an Antigua-based petroleum storage and distribution firm of which the federal government is a majority shareholder, and Fancy Bridge Ltd., a Hong Kong-based funding agency that owns shares within the oil firm, as does Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., often called PDVSA.
The establishments that the attorneys plan to subpoena are required to adjust to the request for data until Browne or another person information a movement opposing the subpoenas.
Authorized instances associated to Alfa Nero are also ongoing in Russia and the Jap Caribbean Supreme Courtroom.
