Oligarch Yachts - The Hidden Trails

Shell companies hide yacht asset ownership, in Belgium, the Netherlands, Malta, Turkey and Switzerland

An investigation into Oligarch yachts has been published by Точкаsee (see references for the credit and source).

Yachts of Russian oligarchs are sold to nameless buyers for half the price or even a third of it. "Point" found out to whom Andrei Guryev's yachts from "FosAgro" and Dmitry Pumpyansky's "pipe king" went to.

Their names are hidden behind the chain of companies in Belgium, the Netherlands, Malta and Switzerland, and the transactions went quietly - through auctions and private agreements. Now both yachts - Alfa Nero and Axioma - are in the luxury charter market under the management of the same broker who rented the yacht Suleiman Kerimov, before it was arrested at the request of the United States.

Pumpyansky's former yacht Axioma has a 3D cinema on board and a large swimming pool on the aft deck, which overlooks the swimming platform. Photo: yachtcharterfleet.com

Broker's trail

Alfa Nero and Axioma are the first and so far the only yachts of Russian oligarchs that were confiscated, removed from sanctions in 2022 and then sold, installed by "Dochka" on the basis of open data. A total of 21 yachts fell under sanctions: 16 remain arrested or frozen, three escaped after detention - two Aldabra yachts of Dmitry Mazepin, the owner of Uralchem, disappeared from Sardinia, and Irina VU of Alisher Usmanov disappeared in Croatia. Only Axioma and Alfa Nero have been announced for sale. The U.S. Treasury Department excluded Alfa Nero from the Guryev sanctions list in July 2023, and Axioma left the SDN list in May of the same year.

The new owners were not publicly named, but in September 2024, the yacht bulletin posted an announcement about the return of the 82-metre yacht Alfa Nero to the charter market. "It's somewhat poetic," to Northrop & Johnson, ready to lease the yacht, "that Alfa Nero has returned here [Antigua], becoming part of the island's skyline." In an article by Bloomberg, which baptised the deal as "the end of a long-term saga", the agent of the same broker company Richard Higgins from the same firm was called a representative of a mysterious buyer. Northrop & Johnson simultaneously sold the yacht and rents it out, "Tochka" drew attention.

Northrop & Johnson has recently become an official dealer of two superyachts seized from Russian oligarchs - Alfa Nero Guryev and Axioma of the Ural pipe industry magnate Dmitry Pumpyansky, according to the company's website. The Florida-based firm positions itself as the "world's leading luxury yacht brokerage company" and operates in America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Previously, she rented Suleiman Kerimov's Amadea yacht - before its arrest at the request of the United States (Among the detained yachts of Russian oligarchs, Amadea is the most expensive - $325,000,000, it will also be sold soon).

"Tochka" requested data from Northrop & Johnson on yacht rental for the summer of 2025 and received a quick response: both yachts will be available in Monaco. A week-long cruise on Alfa Nero will cost €1,400,000, on Axioma - about €1,000,000, including taxes (20% VAT) and crew maintenance. For comparison: it is 35.8 and 25.6 years of the average salary of a European, calculated "Point" based on Eurostat data. The Northrop & Johnson agent noted close ties with the yacht owners, adding that the information is available on their website.

Yacht charter fleet.com

Alfa Nero, named after the Roman Emperor Nero, has belonged to Guryev for the last 10 years. The yacht accommodates 16 guests and is served by a crew of up to 28 people. Among its features are an office grand piano and a landscape pool with a glass waterfall, which at the touch of a button turns into a dance floor or a helipad.

Axioma, previously owned by Pumpyansky, is characterised by an interior in the style of a beach house. On board there is a two-story mezzanine in the main salon and a landscape pool in the aft part of the main deck.

Superboats with discount

In July 2024, the authorities of Antigua and Barbuda (an island state in the Caribbean Sea) sold Guryev's Alfa Nero for $40,000,000 in a private deal without disclosing the buyer. This is three times less than $120,000,000, which, according to the U.S. Treasury, Guryev paid for it in 2014. Known for his God-fearingness, the billionaire bought a yacht through a shet company created by Appleby, which was revealed in the 2017 leak. This move made it possible to save up to $24,000,000 on VAT, which in the EU is 20% of the cost of the vessel.

Pumpiansky's 72-metre yacht Axioma was auctioned in Gibraltar back in August 2022 for $37,500,000. In 2014, Pumpyansky paid $62,000,000 for his spontaneous purchase at the Yacht Show in Monaco, and by 2022 it was estimated at $75,000,000 (SuperYachtFan). Pumpyansky bought it through a play company with the help of Credit Suisse, which became known from the "Panama Papers". Built by the Turkish shipyard Dunya Yachts under the "stap" name Red Square came under the sanctions of the U.S. Department of State in August 2022.

Ownership scheme: Malta, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey

Both yachts are now flying the flag of Malta, according to the Equasis shipping base. The flag of Malta is recognised by all countries and provides favourable tax conditions for superyachts.

Alfa Nero has been registered in Malta by YM Thunder 1 Shipping Ltd since August 2024, Axioma is its "sister" YM Thunder 2 Shipping Ltd. Both companies were established in December 2023, seven months before the sale of Alfa Nero and 16 months after the auction with Axioma. Their ultimate beneficiary is the Dutch Yilmar Holding B.V., which manages the assets of the Turkish conglomerate Yildirim, brothers Robert Yuksel and Ali Riza Yildirim, whose fortune was estimated by Bloomberg at $3.4 billion in 2023.

Pumpyansky's Axioma did not leave the U.S. sanctions list immediately after the auction in Gibraltar. Only a year later, Yildirim convinced the U.S. Treasury Department to lift restrictions with the support of Latham & Watkins law firm, known for Pandora's Documents for helping oligarchs in secret transactions.

Since October 2022, the yacht has been listed by the Belgian Sealase SA, a subsidiary of the Dutch Blue Mountain Asset Management BV, controlled by Yildirim. Sealease's 2022 annual report shows an increase in assets by $38,000,000 - almost the exact auction price of the yacht ($37,500,000). The purchase was financed by an increase in capital by €8,500,000, bank loans secured by a yacht and loans from affiliated companies. The 2023 report states that Sealease has abandoned further projects in the yachting industry.

Since November 2023, Axioma has been managed by the Turkish Zeycan Maritime Ltd (named after Robert Yildirim's daughter). In October 2024, the yacht underwent major repairs at the shipyard in La Siota, France. At the same time, its technical operator was replaced: instead of Jansen Maritime Service Ltd, an unnamed company appeared, and Sealease management passed to the Dutch Yildirim Yönetim BV, which manages Yildirimov' assets.

Yachts with background and family trust

On February 24, 2022, the General Director of "FosAgro" Guryev and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of TMK Pumpyansky, together with three dozen super-rich industrialists, listened to President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, who had just unleashed a war with Ukraine and explained to the elite why "SVO" was needed. The meeting in the Kremlin linked entrepreneurs with the war, and already in March both fell under EU sanctions, in April they were already on the lists of Great Britain, the United States punished them in August 2022. These countries recognised Andrei Guryev, Dmitry Pumpyansky, as well as their heirs as Putin's associates involved in economic sectors that bring significant income to the Russian regime.

By that time, the Guryev family, through trust structures and a company on the island of Guernsey, owned the Witanhurst mansion in London - the second largest after Buckingham Palace, worth $400,000,000 - and a penthouse with a chapel in the tallest residential skyscraper in Great Britain, for oligarchs with a desperate need to kiss shrines.

#288 in the world and #17 in the Russian Forbes list

54 billion rubles - income from dividends of "Fosagro" received Andrei Guryev and his family in 2024 (Clumberg data)

Andrey Guryev and the heir Andrey A. Guryev (under sanctions since April 2022) was repurposed into public figures. After being included in the sanctions lists, Andrei Guryev left the board of directors of FosAgro, and is now the vice-president of the Russian Union of Chemists. Andrey A. Guryev resigned from the post of CEO of the company, leaving behind the post of president of the Moscow Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation and head of the Russian Association of Fertiliser Producers.

They do not own FosAgro, but continue to be the main recipients of dividends from the largest Russian fertiliser manufacturer. The family owned "FosAgro" through Cypriot and Swiss companies, in April 2022 they were transferred to the Russian offshore in Kaliningrad.

Since March 2022, the Alfa Nero yacht has been in the port of Falmouth Harbour in Antigua with geolocation enabled (AIS). Local services refused to refuel and prepare the ship to go to sea. At that time, Roman Abramovich's yachts left the same port without hinderance.

Riot on board and sale

The authorities of Antigua began to act only six months after the outbreak of the war: in August 2022, when the U.S. Department of Justice identified the 83-metre Alfa Nero as Guryev's asset, the crew was searched and interrogated.

By March 2023, the yacht had been idle in the port of Falmouth Harbour for a year. Part of the team, supported by the Nautilus trade union, filed a lawsuit in the court of Antigua and Barbuda, demanding to accelerate the sale of the vessel in order to pay off salary debts for months of forced downtime. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the sailors ate stocks of lobsters, caviare and champagne, but continued to service the yacht.

And only then the government of Antigua began to decide the fate of the superboat - for this it had to change the internal law, which allowed to recognise the yacht as abandoned, confiscate and sell it for the benefit of the environment. The yacht could become dangerous in case a hurricane hits and sinks it, the Cabinet of Ministers explained its plan. As a result, Alfa Nero was confiscated by the authorities of Antigua and Barbuda as an abandoned and environmentally hazardous vessel, "where sewage, other waste and debts accumulated...".

The port authority warned those it considered the owner of Alfa Nero that they had 10 days to report, or the yacht would be put up for auction. The addressees were Andrey Guryev (at the address: Lobnya, Russia) and companies in Guernsey and the Virgin Islands, through which he owned a yacht.

Andrey Guryev never admitted that he owns the Alfa Nero yacht. All Guryevs (except the heir) do not give interviews, and in the documents they prefer to indicate domestic addresses: the documents of the High Court of London indicate the address of A.G.'s apartment. Guryev, wife Evgenia and house 22, building 3 on Bolshaya Yakimanka Street in Moscow. Rosreestr estimates the cost of the apartment at ₽377 756 256.

Two months after the start of these events, on May 18, 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department authorised the government of Antigua to sell an "unclaimed" yacht and lifted sanctions from the ship.

Alfa Nero was sold for the first time at auction, announcing the winner - former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who offered $67,000,000.

The heiress held the yacht

But then the daughter of the founder of "FosAgro" Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov intervened - through her, the oligarch's family finally claimed their rights to the yacht. Julia appealed to the court of Antigua with a demand to recognise the sale of the yacht as illegal. As a result, Schmidt changed his mind about buying a ship, the ownership of which he could no longer be guaranteed.

In her lawsuit, Gureva-Motlokhov for the first time actually confirmed the family's connection with the boat and described the ownership scheme. Guryev's daughter claimed that it was she, not her father, who is behind the family Tyne Trust, which through Opus Private Ltd in Guernsey manages companies from the British Virgin Islands Flying Dutchman Ltd (the owner of the yacht) and Vita Felice Ltd (the owner of works of art on board - Miro's paintings). It turned out that Andrei Guryev himself is not a beneficiary of the trust, but controls this trust. When the father was replaced with his daughter, the lawsuit did not specify, if it happened after the introduction of sanctions against Guryev, it was illegal.

After the May auction, several more unsuccessful attempts to sell the yacht into the hands of other auction participants willing to pay less than Schmidt. As a result, Antigua managed to get rid of the yacht only a year later, making a deal with an anonymous buyer without too much noise.

The High Court of Antigua and Barbuda has never ruled on the claims of Guryeva-Motlokhov and the owner companies challenging the constitutionality of the sale decision. The specialised publication Boat International reported that the court can no longer cancel the sale, but will study the issue of whether the government should pay compensation to the previous owner of the yacht. As a result, the proceeds from the sale of Alfa Nero were used to repay debts, and the rest was used to reduce public debt, The Observer reported in July 2024.

The Guryevs have another yacht, Luminosity, one of the world's largest hybrid superyachts with a length of 108 metres has been standing in the Porto Montenegro marina in Tivat for almost three years. A certain mystery shopper is interested in the yacht. Due to debts for the maintenance of Luminosity, the commercial court imposed a temporary ban on its sale.

Pumpiansky's boat covered the bank's debts

**Dmitri Pumpyansky**

$3.3 billion

#42 place in the Forbes Russia billionaires ranking

Founder of the Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), one of the world's three leaders in pipe production, and co-owner of the multi-industry group "Sinara" in transport engineering and financial services. Dmitry Pumpyansky and his son Alexander left the beneficiaries of TMK and the Sinara group and left their posts in their companies.

Before the war, the Pumpiansky family had vineyards in France and chalets in the Alps in addition to a luxury yacht. The war caught a yacht between the bays of the islands of San Barthélemy and Antigua and Barbuda, where experts and journalists who observed its fate lost it. Axioma turned off the signal, installed "New Newspaper Europe" in the study "Otmers".

A month after the Russian army invaded Ukraine, the government of Gibraltar decided to arrest the Axioma yacht. The arrest followed the inclusion of Pumpyansky in the sanctions lists, but took place on the original occasion - "in the interests of creditors", the Gibraltar authorities reported. Behind the arrest of Pumpyansky's yacht was the American bank JP Morgan, which issued a loan to Pumpyansky in December 2021 in the area of $20,000,000: the oligarch issued a yacht for Cyprus (Furdberg Holding Ltd.), which paid it through a loan in JPMorgan for a metallurgist's holding company in the British Virgin Islands (Pyrene Investments Ltd), mortgaged the yacht in the bank. The fact that the billionaire is under sanctions means that the terms of the loan agreement have been violated, since by law the bank cannot accept loan payments from Pyrene.

Axioma no longer belongs to Pumpiansky, but stands in the marina of La Siota in the suburbs of Marseille - the third place in popularity among the Russian elite. It is home to Europe's largest seaport for servicing and repairing the largest and most expensive private yachts. Photo: MarineTraffic

Pumpyansky in 2024 will still win the trial on the cancellation of EU sanctions, but will remain under sanctions, Axioma will withdraw from the auction to the Turks, and the son will report in an interview with the Swiss Blick about the decision to leave Switzerland for Turkey. He did not specify whether he planned to return to the country where he had lived for 20 years.

Who are the Yildirim brothers?

The Turkish company has more than tripled in price over the past three years, making the family behind it a billionaire. Robert made a lifetime bet 15 years ago by investing in container transportation of the French shipping CMA CGM - the investment brought them more than 800% during the pandemic. The Turkish holding owns 24% of the French cargo carrier. They have a plan until 2030: to buy up to three ports annually so that Yilport (unites the family's shipping activities) become one of the top ten terminal operators in the world.

Ali and Robert Yildyrim are actively working in the same sectors as Guryev and Pumpyansky. Their business interests overlap in the production of fertilisers and metallurgy.

The Yildirim family, through its Yildirim holding, owns the Yilfert Holding division, which unites fertiliser production enterprises in Europe:

Rosier S.A. in Belgium and the Netherlands;

Petrochemy d.d. Kutina in Croatia.

These assets allow the Turkish brothers to play a prominent role in the European fertiliser market. Their interests directly echo the business of Guryev, whose company "FosAgro" is one of the largest producers of phosphate fertilisers in the world.

Turkey imports about 17% of fertilisers from the Russian Federation, which Guryev confirmed at the BRICS summit. Yildiryms, in turn, have access to the Black Sea through the modernised port of YILPORT Taranto in the Mediterranean, which strengthens their position in logistics and fertiliser trade in the region.

In the metallurgy sector, Yildirim Group also has a significant presence in Russia. They own the Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant, one of the largest producers of high-carbon ferrochrome in the country. Thus, both Yildiryms and Pumpyansky operate in related segments related to the production and processing of metals.

From sanctions to charters: where are the yachts now

The Swiss Fema Marine SA (with offices in Istanbul and Singapore) is engaged in the repair of both yachts, placement in the docks and the recruitment of the team after sale to Turkish billionaires, as stated in the company's description. She literally flooded her social networks with the same type of messages: "New era" and "Get on board and become a part of the history of yachting".

From the business register in the canton of Neuchâtel, you can learn that Fema Marine SA, a daughter of the Swiss engineering company Fema International, opened 11 months ago. Fema Marine SA has no staff, phone or email. The company has been declared the patron of the "Asia-Pacific Superyacht Summit 2025", which will be held in May in Hong Kong. "Fema Marine continues to influence the superyacht industry, managing such well-known charter yachts as Alfa Nero and Axioma," the event organisers explain their choice. They call the Asia-Pacific region the "new Mediterranean" for superyachts after 2022.

Pumpyansky's former yacht "wintered" in the French port of La Siot, according to MarineTraffic data. The arrested Amore Vero stands in the neighbourhood - the French Ministry of Finance considers her the yacht of the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin. In March 2025, that Axioma remains moored in La Ciota, France.

Alfa Nero in a superyacht marina in Christophe Harbour in Saint Kitts and Nevis on February 14, 2025. Photo: MarineTraffic

The sold Guryev's yacht Alfa Nero was presented at the yacht show in Antigua in December 2024, which is confirmed by several posts on Instagram against the background of the boat. After that, she returned to her marina for superyachts in Christoph Harbour on the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean Sea, according to MarineTraffic. The Alfa Nero yacht left its harbour for the second time on February 26 and went to the neighbouring islands of Sint Maarten and, according to the broker, is on a cruise.

What does all this mean: Comment by anti-corruption expert Ilya Shumanov

"This is a illustrative example of the fate of expensive assets, regarding the fact that they are bought at a discount, they are not looking for a buyer [for resale] and try to earn on them. This is a potential economic strategy," commented anti-corruption expert, author of the telegram channel @CorruptionTV Ilya Shumanov, whom we asked to assess the importance of the new data.

He emphasised that at the moment there is no reason to believe that Turkish billionaires help Russian oligarchs circumvent sanctions.

"But the collected invoice is already enough to talk about the transfer of assets. They are excluded from sanctions, and bought up by incomprehensible companies with unknown owners. It can be fakes or just unknown money invested through Turkey to buy such titbits. It is important that these yachts do not fall into the orbit of global international yachting. They are not purchased by people from Europe or the United States who are ready to buy such a yacht with a large discount - more than 50%," Schumanov explained.

Superyahs with works of art and luxury goods on board lose their attractiveness because of their origin. "The history of these assets is interesting for their background and reputational costs. No one wants to "sew" yachts for Russian oligarchs," Shumanov said. The world market of elite yachts has faced an unprecedented situation: technically advanced and luxurious vessels remain unclaimed, despite the decrease in their cost.

**Ilya Shumanov in 2024 created the project "Arktida", which deals with investigations and studies of the Russian Arctic.

Investigation source:

https://pointmedia.io/story/67d28bade25aea416748a742