Alfa Nero discovery bid fails at Second Circuit

A US federal appeals court has ruled against the UK-sanctioned daughter of Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev, Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, shutting down her attempt to obtain American banking records she claimed would prove that Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne and his associates personally profited from the $40 million sale of Alfa Nero. Her legal team allege the figure bears no relation to the true transaction value.

The lawsuit brought forward by the Russian and Cypriot national asserted that the sale of the vessel, which has now long been returned to the charter fleet, was suspiciously low considering its condition, age and pedigree. The ensuing argument was that the government misappropriated proceeds from the eventual sale.

SuperyachtNews has approached representatives of the Antiguan government for comment.

The ruling is the latest setback for Guryeva-Motlokhov in a legal campaign spanning years and multiple jurisdictions that has run since Antigua seized the 82-metre Oceanco in April 2023. The authorities declared it abandoned following multiple attempts to find its owner, following the sanctioning of Guryev by the US Treasury Department in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The vessel was subsequently sold at auction in July 2024 for $40 million to Turkish businessman Ali Riza Yildirim, brokered by Northrop & Johnson. The proceeds from the sale were meant to be directed to Antigua’s consolidated fund to pay off state debts, though the government has not publicly identified which debts were settled.

On 30 March 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld Judge Jesse Furman’s June 2025 ruling in the Southern District of New York, which quashed subpoenas served on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and The Clearing House. Any documents already received by Guryeva-Motlokhov’s legal team must be destroyed, with proof of compliance required by the court. Attorneys for Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who was among the targets of the subpoenas, are reported to be exploring the recovery of legal costs incurred during the appellate process.

The subpoenas targeted wire transfer records over a five-year period relating to seven individuals, including Browne, his wife, his son, Antigua’s general accountant and its port manager, as well as twelve entities, including the West Indies Oil Company and Fancy Bridge Ltd, a Hong Kong-based investment firm with reported links to Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.

Martin De Luca of Boies Schiller Flexner said at the time of filing, “The disappearance of millions from the sale of the Alfa Nero is just the beginning.” Judge Furman initially granted the application ex parte in March 2025, but the order was vacated following intervention from Antigua.

The court made no finding on whether the underlying corruption allegations had merit — this was a procedural ruling on the usability of evidence in foreign proceedings. The ruling, by Circuit Judges Barrington D. Parker, Raymond J. Lohier Jr. and Sarah A. L. Merriam, is a summary order and carries no precedential effect. Prime Minister Browne has also filed a $10 million defamation claim against De Luca and Boies Schiller Flexner over statements made during the disclosure proceedings.

SuperyachtNews has approached De Luca for comment.

A separate and active application was filed in the Southern District of Florida, targeting Northrop & Johnson for discovery to use in the same foreign proceedings. It is unclear if the Second Circuit’s ‘for use’ reasoning will affect this application.

The ruling is not the end of Guryeva-Motlokhov’s broader legal campaign, either. The bench trial on the constitutional challenge to the Port Authority Amendment Act 2023 (the legislation Antigua passed to enable the seizure and sale of vessels deemed “abandoned” or “hazardous”) has concluded, with judgment still outstanding more than a year after it was expected in February 2025. The Second Circuit explicitly left the door open for a fresh US discovery application if circumstances change materially. An adverse judgment against the government may constitute exactly that.

Guryeva-Motlokhov claims to be the yacht’s rightful owner through a trust structure, having come forward to assert her claim ahead of the judicial sale, and maintains the vessel was never truly abandoned. Subject to UK sanctions since February 2024 under the Russia programme, her US legal team at Boies Schiller Flexner filed the New York application in March last year.

The sale to Yildirim is final and cannot be reversed, so the realistic outcome of any successful constitutional claim would be financial compensation from the government. But amid the corruption allegations, the question of where the $40 million actually went remains unanswered.

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