Russian owner of £38m superyacht seized after Putin's Ukraine invasion launches High Court fight to get it back
- Boat branded an 'icon of Russian power' is being fought over in the High Court
A Russian-owned £38 million superyacht seized by the UK government at the start of the invasion of Ukraine is at the centre of a High Court tug of war.
The Phi was called an 'icon of Russian power' by the then-Transport Secretary Grant Shapps last year.
National Crime Agency officers boarded and detained the enormous 200ft cruiser, which is owned by Sergei Georgievich Naumenko, in March 2022.
Naumenko wants an order setting aside the decision to detain the Phi following the outbreak of war in February 2022
A judge has overseen a preliminary High Court hearing in London and heard arguments from lawyers representing him and current Transport Secretary Mark Harper.
Seized: Officials board Phi, pictured, in Canary Wharf last year, which is owned by a Russian businessman
UK investigators believed the boat, called Phi, belongs to a Russian businessman named Sergei Georgievich Naumenko. Pictured: The National Crime Agency during the seizure
Mr Justice Chamberlain was told that the Phi had been moored at Canary Wharf, in London, for more than a year.
'Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the National Crime Agency and Border Force Maritime Intelligence Bureau investigated vessels with connections to Russia,' said the judge, in a ruling on preliminary issues which has been published online.
'The Phi was identified as a vessel of interest.
'On 28 March 2022, the then Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP, exercised powers ... to detain the Phi, on the ground that it was owned, controlled or operated by a person connected with Russia.'
He said a 'substantive hearing' was due to be staged in July.
The big boat has a wine cellar and freshwater swimming pool,
The 192ft vessel, pictured, which boasts a freshwater swimming pool and an 'infinite' wine cellar, was boarded by officers from the National Crime Agency hours before it was due to leave Canary Wharf, in east London
Shapps heralded the seizure at the time, declaring: 'We've detained a £38million superyacht and turned an icon of Russia's power and wealth into a clear and stark warning to Putin and his cronies.
'Detaining The Phi proves, yet again, that we can and will take the strongest possible action against those seeking to benefit from connections to Putin's regime.'
Phi was first identified as being potentially Russian owned on March 13 last year.
Investigators were left questioning how the wealth of the 'small fry' businessman, who is understood to work in property, matched the value of the custom-built superyacht.
But a source said the boat had been impounded over concerns a wealthy oligarch was actually being 'shielded by a pretend owner'.
The boat's captain Guy Booth, from Worthing, West Sussex, has previously said that the owner is an experienced yachtsman' – and told friends on Facebook that Phi did not have a Russian owner.
A Government source said: 'This yacht detention is the product of weeks of enquiries, spanning the world. It is the oligarch equivalent of the Russian matryoshka doll – where each layer conceals another, and then another.'
Officials in Sardinia also seized a £500,000 bullet and explosive-proof Mercedes Maybach limousine, owned by Alisher Usmanov, the former Arsenal shareholder.
A superyacht owned by sanctioned Russian Alexei Mordashov has sailed 5,000 miles from the Seychelles and will soon reach Russia's eastern port of Vladivostok, 80 miles from the border with North Korea.
