UPDATE, APRIL 23, 2024: The Dutch auction house Troostwijk Auctions will handle the auction of the yacht Royal Romance. Ukraine’s Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) announced its selection today. Troostwijk Auctions has experience with yacht auctions, plus a global presence. This includes offices in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and Croatia, which particularly impressed the selection committee. The auction date has yet to be announced. However, “This is already a big victory!” Olena Duma, head of ARMA, says. “We believe that now Medvedchuk’s yacht will be sold at a transparent auction and will bring significant revenues to the budget of Ukraine!”
Read on for our original article.
Ukraine’s Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) is currently fielding applications to manage the auction of the yacht Royal Romance. It’s the first time in the country’s and the agency’s history that a sale will take place for a seized asset abroad.
A 303-footer (92-meter) megayacht initially seeing delivery in 2015 from Feadship, Royal Romance has been under ARMA’s control in Trogir, Croatia since April 2022. Croatian officials arrested her in March 2022 because her ultimate beneficial owner was Viktor Medvedchuk. A pro-Kremlin, former Ukrainian politician, Medvedchuk has been under international sanctions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine itself santioned him in early 2021 for suspicion of financing terrorism. He’s further been under U.S. sanctions since 2014 for undermining Ukrainian sovereignty. The superyacht was handed over to Ukraine in January of this year. At that time, Olena Duma, ARMA’s chair, said “there are no legal obstacles” preventing Croatia from transferring Royal Romance to Ukraine.
As of March 21, and continuing through April 18, ARMA is accepting auction house applications. Duma indicates several international firms have already been in touch, too. She doesn’t say how soon afterwards the auction of the yacht Royal Romance will take place. However, ARMA does intend to announce the winning auction house on April 23.
Furthermore, Duma says, that auction house “will go down in history as an ally in the victory over evil.” The buyer, meanwhile, “will deal a political blow to Putin’s regime and go down in the history of the world,” she adds. The auction proceeds will benefit Ukraine’s defense.
ARMA indicates Royal Romance has two elevators, a cinema, a spa, and about 50 other rooms.
Additionally notable, the auction of the yacht Royal Romance may be the beginning of more to come. According to a statement by ARMA, “Commission member Stanislav Petrov noted that this is the first and far from the last arrested asset that will serve and work for the good of Ukraine.”
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