ST. JOHN, Antigua, – In a significant legal development that promises to crack open the secretive financial dealings surrounding a controversial yacht sale, a federal judge in New York has authorized attorneys to follow the money trail leading to Antigua and Barbuda’s corridors of power.
The ruling, delivered Monday, grants lawyers representing Russian woman Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov permission to issue subpoenas targeting the financial records of Prime Minister Gaston Browne and other government officials involved in the $40 million sale of the abandoned megayacht Alfa Nero.
“The financial records will speak for themselves,” said Martin De Luca of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, one of the attorneys leading the charge in what has become an international legal chess match spanning three continents.
Attorneys for Guryeva-Motlokhov are seeking documents and information related to wire transfers and other transactions involving the prime minister and six other people, as well as 12 entities, in the past five years.
The people targeted include Browne, one of his sons, his wife, Antigua’s general accountant and its port manager.
The entities include West Indies Oil Co. Ltd., an Antigua-based petroleum storage and distribution company of which the government is a majority shareholder, and Fancy Bridge Ltd., a Hong Kong-based investment firm that owns shares in the oil company, as does Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., known as PDVSA.
The institutions that the attorneys plan to subpoena are required to comply with the request for information unless Browne or someone else files a motion opposing the subpoenas
The legal team must first notify Prime Minister Browne and other officials before serving subpoenas on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the US-based Clearing House Payments Co. – entities that may hold the key to unraveling the mystery of where the yacht’s proceeds ultimately flowed.
Guryeva-Motlokhov claims rightful ownership of the luxurious vessel, which sat anchored off Antigua’s picturesque shores for months before the local government seized and sold it last year.
The yacht was previously owned by her father, Andrey Guryev, a Russian businessman who founded a fertilizer company and served in the Russian government before being sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in August 2022.
The megayacht was subsequently removed from the sanctions list in June 2023, clearing the path for Antigua to liquidate the asset – a move that has since sparked intense scrutiny both locally and internationally.
At the heart of the controversy lies Guryeva-Motlokhov’s attorneys’ March 11 filing in federal court, which alleges that Browne’s administration has stonewalled attempts to obtain documents related to the yacht’s sale. This lack of transparency has fueled speculation and prompted opposition leaders in Antigua to demand a full accounting of how the proceeds were spent.
When reached for comment regarding the judge’s ruling, Browne did not immediately respond.
