A model of this text first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth publication with Robert Frank, a weekly information to the high-net-worth investor and shopper. Join to obtain future editions, straight to your inbox.
A megayacht as soon as valued at greater than $300 million was bought by the U.S. authorities for $187 million to an Emirati billionaire whose household has a enterprise partnership with the Trump Group, in line with authorities paperwork and yacht business executives.
Amadea, a 348-foot yacht seized by federal authorities in 2022, was a part of a monetary crackdown on Russian oligarchs following the nation’s invasion of Ukraine. After a prolonged authorized battle, the yacht was auctioned off by order of the Justice Division in September.
Neither the worth nor the customer was introduced by the federal government, but a authorities doc reveals the acquisition value was $187 million. The customer was Abbas Sajwani, the 27-year-old son of Dubai property tycoon Hussain Sajwani, whose firm DAMAC Properties has partnered with the Trump Group.
Hussain Sajwani appeared with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago final yr to announce a $20 billion funding in U.S. knowledge facilities by one in all Sajwani’s firms. On the press convention, Trump launched Sajwani as “one of the crucial revered enterprise leaders within the Center East and certainly the world.”
Neither Hussain Sajwani, Abbas Sajwani nor DAMAC responded to requests for remark. The Division of Justice and White Home declined to remark.
CEO of DAMAC Properties Hussain Sajwani makes remarks subsequent to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Seaside, Florida, U.S. January 7, 2025.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
In 2022, the U.S. seized Amadea off the coast of Fiji as a part of a crackdown on Russian oligarchs. The seizure was the best profile take a look at case for “Process Pressure KleptoCapture,” a program created by the Biden administration to sanction Russian oligarchs and seize the property of violators. The Justice Division alleged Amadea was owned by Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian mining tycoon who had been beneath sanctions since 2018.
U.S. authorities employed a brand new crew and sailed Amadea to San Diego. It remained docked in San Diego Bay for 3 years throughout a prolonged authorized battle over its possession. To take care of the yacht and crew, and pay insurance coverage and docking charges, the authorities spent between $600,000 to $1 million a month, or an estimated $36 million in complete, throughout its time beneath U.S. management.
After a forfeiture order from a U.S. District Court docket decide, Amadea was ordered to be auctioned on Sept. 10, 2025. The public sale, which befell a month later, was overseen by the U.S. Marshals Service, part of the Justice Division. The director of the Marshals Service is Gadyaces Serralta, who was appointed by Trump and sworn in on Aug. 1, weeks earlier than the Amadea public sale. The bids had been sealed and submitted to the Marshals Service, which was answerable for deciding on the successful bid.
The Marshals Service by no means introduced the winner.
“The USMS doesn’t routinely disclose or verify the id of the customer when promoting property,” a spokesperson for the Marshals Service stated in a press release. “That info is withheld beneath federal privateness exemptions until ordered launched by federal courts.”
When it was seized, the Justice Division cited varied valuations for Amadea. Early filings by the justice division cited a spread of “between $300 million and $500 million” and equally of “greater than $300 million.” In a 2024 submitting, the Justice Division quoted an unbiased valuation of $230 million.
Mega-yacht Amadea of sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, seized by the Fiji authorities on the request of the U.S., arrives on the Honolulu Harbor, Hawaii, on June 16, 2022.
Eugene Tanner | AFP | Getty Photographs
Registration paperwork confirmed {that a} month after the $187 million sale, Amadea was registered by Past Holding Group Ltd., a British Virgin Islands holding firm that lists a headquarters handle in Dubai that is the identical as DAMAC’s.
The federal government hasn’t introduced a use for the Amadea proceeds. A U.S. assist package deal signed into regulation in Could 2024 gave the federal government the power to grab Russian state property positioned within the U.S. and use the proceeds to learn Ukraine.
The sale caps a turbulent and controversial historical past for Amadea. In-built 2017 by Lurssen, the yacht has six decks and accommodates 16 friends and 36 crew. It has a glass “winter backyard,” infinity pool with a swim-up bar, movie show with movement seats for a “4D expertise” and a celebration deck with built-in audio system, lights and laser beams. It additionally boasts a spa with a hammam, sauna and chromotherapy pool in addition to a lobster tank within the galley for contemporary seafood.
In June, Abbas Sajwani gave Forbes a tour of Amadea anchored off the coast of Monaco. Sajwani informed Forbes he had rejected a suggestion from one other purchaser to purchase Amadea “for way more, within the a whole bunch of thousands and thousands.”
“I really like the boat’s inside, I really like the model,” he stated. “It is lovely.”
Amadea’s most well-known characteristic is a five-ton stainless-steel sculpture of an albatross figurehead wrapped across the bow. After his buy, Sajwani transformed the helipad on the bow deck right into a pickleball court docket.
The Forbes article does not talk about a sale value. Of the public sale, it says: “As luck would have it, Sajwani prevailed. His undisclosed successful bid was solely $1 million above the following highest.” The article does not specify how Sajwani knew the worth of the opposite bids.
Demand for high-quality megayachts like Amadea has soared because the pandemic. With the variety of billionaires on the planet rising to over 3,500, and elite shipyards straining to satisfy demand with lengthy waitlists, costs for preowned yachts proceed to rise. In 2025, gross sales of preowned yachts of 30 meters or extra rose 36%, to $6.44 billion, in line with Fraser Yachts.
Yacht monitoring knowledge offered to CNBC from VesselFinder exhibits that after the public sale, Amadea sailed to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina. Yacht business executives stated the journeys had been for minor repairs and upgrades to Amadea.
Within the Forbes interview, Sajwani stated when he isn’t in Dubai he runs his actual property enterprise from the Amadea.
“Many individuals say they go on a ship for a vacation,” he informed Forbes. “For me, it isn’t the case. It is extra of a spot to stay.”
Abbas Sajwani’s firm, referred to as AHS Properties, purchased the Shangri-La Lodge in Dubai for a reported $300 million and is growing luxurious properties alongside the Dubai Water Canal. Forbes estimates his web price at $1.9 billion.
Though the Iran warfare has slowed Dubai’s once-hot property market, Sajwani informed Forbes, “The Dubai market remains to be very wholesome, there’s quite a lot of demand.”
Sajwani’s father, Hussain, is named the “Donald of Dubai” for his glitzy actual property developments and ties to Trump. In 2013, DAMAC fashioned a partnership with the Trump Group to construct the primary Trump-branded golf course within the Center East. The course opened in 2017.
In keeping with The New York Occasions, DAMAC paid the Trump Group thousands and thousands of {dollars} earlier than the golf course was constructed and subsequent administration charges. A second Trump-branded golf course with DAMAC was deliberate however has been delayed. In April 2025, Hussain Sajwani shared photographs of a breakfast on the White Home, the place he mingled with Elon Musk.
