Forfeited Amadea Superyacht Sells for $187 Million to DAMAC Heir

A $187 Million Sale the Government Would Not Confirm

CNBC and Forbes reported in the first week of August 2026 that Amadea has changed hands, citing a government document that put the winning bid at $187 million. Neither the Department of Justice nor the US Marshals Service has officially disclosed the final price or the buyer's identity. The sale itself was a sealed-bid auction administered by National Maritime Services with Fraser Yachts, which closed on September 10, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale. Bidders had to demonstrate a net worth of at least $500 million, post a $10 million deposit, and follow up with a further $10 million within ten days of winning.

Reports including Luxurylaunches have framed the $187 million result as roughly $138 million below an earlier valuation of about $325 million placed on the yacht. That headline number has moved throughout the case: the Justice Department valued Amadea at up to $300 million at the time of seizure, while some independent appraisals cited in press coverage put it closer to $230 million. For an owner assessing any forfeiture sale, the practical lesson is that a prior appraisal in these cases is a contested figure set during litigation, not a fixed price tag a buyer can simply discount against.

What the New Owner Actually Bought

Amadea was built by Lurssen at its Rendsburg yard in Germany and delivered in March 2017. She measures 106 meters (348 feet) with a gross tonnage of 4,402 across six decks, and sleeps 16 guests in eight suites with a crew of 36. Onboard features reported by Forbes, which was given access aboard the yacht, include a gold-finished elevator, a hand-painted baby grand piano by Pleyel, a 10-meter infinity pool with a swim-up bar, a cinema lounge with a firepit, a spa with sauna and hammam, and a glass winter garden with an outdoor hot tub.

Forbes identified the new owner as Abbas Sajwani, 27, founder of Dubai developer AHS Properties and son of Hussain Sajwani, who built DAMAC Properties into an estimated $15 billion fortune and has been described in press coverage as a longtime friend of President Trump, with DAMAC reported to have Trump Organization business ties in Dubai real estate. Per Forbes, the younger Sajwani has converted the bow helipad into a pickleball court and told the outlet he treats the vessel less as a holiday charter and more as a place to live. No party has publicly confirmed the purchase price on the record.

The Forfeiture Case Behind the Deal

Amadea was seized in Fiji in May 2022 by the FBI and Fijian authorities as part of the Justice Department's KleptoCapture task force, set up to target assets tied to sanctioned Russians after the invasion of Ukraine. The registered owner was Eduard Khudainatov, a former Rosneft chief executive, but prosecutors argued he was a straw owner shielding the real beneficiary, mining billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, who has been under US sanctions since 2018. In March 2025, Judge Dale Ho of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an 80-page ruling ordering forfeiture and rejecting the straw-owner defense; representatives for Khudainatov have continued to challenge that ruling.

The yacht sailed from Fiji to San Diego and sat there for roughly three years while the case proceeded, at a reported cost to US taxpayers of around $32 million to $36 million in upkeep, close to $1 million a month. A completed forfeiture, as opposed to a mere seizure or asset freeze, is what allowed the government to convey clean title to a buyer, clearing the sanctioned owner's claim in a way a private resale of a still-contested asset could not.

How the Other Detained Superyachts Compare

Amadea is unusual among sanctioned Russian-linked megayachts in reaching a completed sale at all. Sailing Yacht A, the 468-foot vessel linked to Andrey Melnichenko, remains held in Trieste after the European Union's top court upheld its seizure, with Italy covering annual maintenance costs reported at around 10 million euros. Dilbar, the roughly $600 million yacht linked to Alisher Usmanov, has been sitting in a floating dock at Lurssen's Hamburg facility since April 2022; a Frankfurt administrative court ruled in June 2026 that German authorities had not adequately justified keeping it frozen, without yet resolving the case toward any sale. Scheherazade has remained impounded at a shipyard in Marina di Carrara, Italy, since May 2022.

The contrast is instructive for any owner tracking this asset class: European detentions have stayed frozen for years without title changing hands, while Amadea's route through a US civil forfeiture case produced an actual, transferable sale, albeit one that took more than three years, an 80-page court ruling, and an appeal still in progress on the underlying seizure. A freeze is not a sale, and only the latter puts a yacht back on the water under new ownership.

The Owner's Calculus: Discount Versus Diligence

The case for a buyer in this market rests on three points visible in the Amadea sale. The price came in well below the appraisals cited during the case, by roughly $138 million against the higher $325 million figure. Title passed directly from the US government, which clears the legal cloud a sanctioned original owner would otherwise leave over the asset. And the scale on offer, a 106-meter, 4,402 GT yacht with 16-guest and 36-crew capacity, is not available new at anywhere close to $187 million once current Lurssen build slots and multi-year construction timelines are factored in.

The case against is just as concrete. The yacht carries a public association with a sanctioned original owner and a high-profile DOJ forfeiture case that any future charter guest, insurer, or flag state can look up. Its deferred-maintenance history is not independently disclosed beyond the government's own reported upkeep spending, no manufacturer warranty transfers with a forfeiture sale, and the sealed-bid process itself was opaque, with the government withholding the final price and buyer's name from the public record. The buyer pool was also artificially thin, restricted to bidders who could prove a $500 million net worth, which limits how liquid this exact kind of deal will be if the new owner ever wants to sell.