U.S. federal judge allows attorneys to subpoena financial records in Antigua yacht case

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – A federal judge in New York on Monday approved a Russian woman’s licensed lawyer to issue a subpoena to obtain financial records and other involved officials from the Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda For sale of giant abandoned by her father.

Attorneys must first notify Prime Minister Gaston Browne and others before serving as subpoena before serving at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the liquidated housing payment company at U.S. headquarters.

“Financial records will speak for themselves,” said Martin De Luca of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.

He is one of the lawyers for Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, who claims she is the legal owner of Alfa Nero Megayacht, and he is still close to Antigua in Antigua until the local government caught and sold it last year.

Brown did not immediately respond to information about the judge’s ruling.

In a document filed in a federal court on March 11, Guryeva-Motlokhov’s lawyers pointed out that Brown’s government has not yet released documents with the $40 million sale of yachts once owned by Russian businessman Andrey Guryev, a Russian businessman who set up a fertilizer company and worked for the Russian government.

He was approved by the U.S. Treasury Department in August 2022 and removed Megayacht from the sanctions list in June 2023 so Antigua can liquidate.

Opposition leaders in Antigua also asked for details on how to spend the proceeds of yachts for sale.

Brown said details about yacht sales were public. He sent several documents to the Associated Press on Sunday, and he spoke about the details.

“This is irrefutable evidence that the claim that $10 million was lost in the proceeds was made,” he wrote in a message.

However, key information was removed in the bank payment/transfer form, which made it difficult to confirm the details of the loan and promotion.

Brown also accused Guryeva-Motlokhov of slander.

In July 2024, Brown’s wife, Antigua’s Minister of Housing Maria Browne, told the Antigua Observer newspaper that the proceeds were used to pay off government debts. A few days before the report was released, the Prime Minister said his government was considering using the money to build a resort.

Over the past five years, Guryeva-Motlokhov’s lawyers are seeking documents and information related to wire transfers and other transactions involving the Prime Minister and six other people and 12 entities.

The target people include Brown, his wife, their son and chief accountant in Antigua and his port manager.

These entities include West Indian Petroleum Corporation Limited, an antigua-based oil storage and distribution company with the government as a majority shareholder, and a Hong Kong-based investment company Fancy Bridge Ltd., which owns shares in the oil company, as is petróleos de Venezuela sa, known as PDVSA.

The agency that attorneys plan to subpoena must comply with the information unless Brown or someone else makes a motion against the subpoena.

Legal cases related to Alfa Nero are also underway in the Supreme Court of Russia and the Caribbean.