lachlan murdoch yachts

Billionaire Lachlan Murdoch Buys 68-Year-Old Superyacht

When your superyacht's also your tinnie...

Image Credit: Boat International/Guillaume Plisson

Lachlan Murdoch, heir to the Murdoch media empire, has reportedly purchased a fully refurbished, 43-metre long yacht for a cool $30 million ($22.5 million USD). 

The freshly re-done 1954 motor yacht, Istros , was sold over a month ago. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that their sources say Istros will be motoring into Sydney Harbour in the near future, where it will be docked nearby the Murdoch’s $100 million ($75 million USD) Bellevue Hill Estate called Le Manoir. 

News of the sale comes as Murdoch awaits the delivery of his 60-metre, $150 million sailing yacht which is still under construction at the Royal Huisman Shipyard in Amsterdam — which means that the Istros is essentially the Murdoch family’s very, very expensive ‘tinnie.’ 

The delicately refurbished 68-year-old ‘tinnie’ comes with 5 staterooms that can accommodate up to 10 guests, state of the art satellite TV technology as well as a fully stocked private bar and lounge area on the top deck. That’s quite the cruise-about.

The two new ships will pair extremely well with the family’s new Point Piper ‘boat shed,’ which Lachlan and his wife Sarah Murdoch reportedly paid a staggering $37 million for, granting it the official title of “ Australia’s most expensive boat shed .”

When the family relocated from Los Angeles to Sydney over a year ago, there was no certainty around how long they would be living in Australia, however The Sydney Morning Herald has now officially confirmed that the Murdochs have officially settled down in Australia, claiming that the election of Democratic President Joe Biden was a major factor behind the move. 

Lachlan Murdoch will maintain his position as the Executive Chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation, a conservative media outlet in the United States. The move probably won’t bother Lachlan too much, as he continues to jet back and forth between the US on his $90 million private jet.  

• What It Costs To Moor A Superyacht At The Monaco Grand Prix
• Bitcoin Is Rallying Again. Will It Last?
• Entertainment
• About DMARGE
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Affiliate Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• In The Media
• Corrections Policy
• Fact-Checking

Get the latest breaking news and original content across sport, entertainment, luxury and travel.

• Cars Database
• Moto Database
• Game reviews
• Compare Cars
• BAC Calculator  
• Testdrives archive
• Photo of the Day
• Glossary of automotive terms

Media Billionaire Lachlan Murdoch and Sarah Lachlan Go Sailing on $30M Superyacht

Lachlan Murdoch and his wife Sarah cruise around Sydney Harbour on their $30million yacht https://t.co/DkL5IKz3wq — World News (@worldnewstweet_) November 7, 2022

Imagine a Wenn diagram for cars and celebrities. At the intersection you'll find Monica, putting her passion for these fields and English-Spanish double major to work. She's been doing for the past seven years, most recently at autoevolution. Full profile

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories

The first biography of Lachlan Murdoch provides some insights, but leaves important questions unanswered

Professor of Communication, Deakin University

Disclosure statement

Matthew Ricketson is the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance's representative on the Australian Press Council.

Deakin University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

The title of Paddy Manning’s The Successor: The High-Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch tells us what is good and not so good about this biography.

It is a smart play on the title of the much-applauded HBO television series, Succession , which everyone except the show’s creators says is modelled on the decades-long corporate psychodrama within the Murdoch family. The Murdochs have said little about the Emmy Award-winning show, but in a knowing wink they chose to use Succession’s grandly jarring theme music in a tribute to Rupert at his 90th birthday party.

I say “Rupert” because he has long since joined the small club of globally famous figures known by their first name. Not so Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s third child but, importantly for him, his eldest son.

Review: The Successor: The High-Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch – Paddy Manning (Black Inc.)

The book’s subtitle is the giveaway. If a “high-stakes life” was Lachlan Murdoch’s defining feature, would it need to be spelt out? The subtitle of a biography of, say, Don Bradman, does not need to inform us of his “high-stakes” life as a cricketer.

Lachlan Murdoch turned 50 last year. He is executive chair and chief executive of Fox Corporation, co-chair of News Corporation, founder of the investment company Illyria Pty Limited, and executive chair of Nova Entertainment. He was in his mid-twenties when he first headed the Australian arm of News Limited, as it was then known. In recent years, after several twists and turns, he has become the anointed heir to Rupert’s global media empire. But he still sits deep in the shadow of his father.

In June, the small independent news website Crikey published an opinion piece arguing the Murdoch-owned Fox Corporation bore at least some responsibility for the January 6 riots at the Capitol in Washington. Many read it as referring to Rupert, but it was Lachlan who sued for defamation .

The ensuing commentary noted that Rupert has never sued a journalist for defamation and asked whether Lachlan is thin-skinned. It is a fair question, given Lachlan has sued a journalist before for inaccurately reporting his use of the company’s private jet.

But it vaults over at least one reason Rupert has not sued: he has an army of his own journalists, who can be deployed to fight battles on his behalf. And they do. A relevant example is what happened to an authorised biographer, who slipped his minders and published a far less flattering portrait than had been anticipated.

Rupert gave more than 50 hours of interviews to Michael Wolff and greenlit his access to key senior people in News Corporation, but the resulting biography, The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch (2008), reportedly infuriated Murdoch. It revealed, for instance, that the ageing media mogul was dyeing his hair to impress Wendi Deng, who is the same age as his second daughter, and who became his third wife in 1999.

The biography was not mentioned in News Corporation’s US outlets until March 2009, when the Murdoch-owned tabloid the New York Post reported Wolff’s marital troubles in its Page Six gossip column . “The bald, trout-pouted Vanity Fair writer, 55,” as Wolff was described, had been carrying on a “steamy public affair” with a 28-year-old intern, prompting his wife to evict him from their Manhattan apartment. So there.

Read more: Rupert Murdoch at 90: why the old mogul may have one final act in him yet

An unauthorised account

At least a half a dozen biographies have been written about Rupert, but The Successor is the first biography of Lachlan Murdoch. That alone makes it noteworthy. It is unauthorised and Lachlan was not interviewed for it, so it draws primarily on interviews with friends, colleagues and enemies, and on secondary sources, notably a good use of overseas media sources.

It draws less heavily on the voluminous academic literature about the Murdoch media, though when it does, Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris and Hal Roberts’ book Network Propaganda (2018) is quoted to good effect. Discussing the role of the Fox News television network, they write: “Conspiracy theories that germinate in the nether regions of the internet stay there unless they find an amplification vector”.

What do we learn about the person who wields so much media power and influence? About Lachlan himself, not much. About Lachlan as a businessman, a bit more. About how Lachlan compares with Rupert and what that might mean for the media – and us, the audience – a good deal more.

The portrait that emerges of Lachlan is drawn in bright colours – he has an adventurous spirit, tattoos, boyish good-looks; he is friendly and easygoing – but it does not have much depth. There are endless descriptions, in real-estate brochure mode, of overlong yachts and stylishly appointed bathrooms in multi-million dollar mansions dotted across the globe. And there are numerous gossipy accounts of parties with Tom and Nicole and Baz.

Manning plumbs the standard biographical sources of his subject’s formative years, but they yield little of much import. At several points Joe Cross, a futures trader friend, is wheeled in to provide testimonials that are the verbal equivalent of eyewash. Here he is on Lachlan meeting his future wife, Sarah O’Hare:

It was on […] he’s like, hook, line and sinker gone. And fair enough! With Sarah, she’s the whole package, she’s like a completely down-to-earth knockabout Aussie, being a supermodel didn’t hurt, and she loves all the things that Lachlan loved […] and she’s got a whole group of fabulous friends that now come together with his tight group of mates, and everyone gets on.

More fruitfully, Manning recounts how Lachlan, for his final year thesis in an arts degree at Princeton, wrote about Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative as inflected by the ideas in the Bhagavad Gita. The thesis was good, according to his supervisor, Professor Beatrice Longuenesse. But what stayed with her, as reported by a journalist who interviewed her many years later, was how Lachlan resembled many other graduates of elite universities, who “glide to the highest reaches of the business world, which they do not tend to disrupt with the lofty ideas they explored as undergraduates”.

Family business

Perhaps the most interesting insight is the extent to which Lachlan is conscious of his family and its history. The family business and the business of the family are pillars around which his life revolves, both by birthright and by choice. He remembers everything negative written about his father, and is fiercely protective of both him and the memory of his grandfather, Keith Murdoch, who for many years headed the Herald and Weekly Times.

Surprisingly for an accomplished journalist, Manning tacitly accepts an abiding myth of the Murdoch family – Keith’s heroic role in writing the so-called “Gallipoli letter” during the first world war. Lachlan retold the story when his grandfather was inducted into the Melbourne Press Club’s Hall of Fame in 2012.

That Sir Keith’s letter was, in important ways, misleading and sensationalised has been discussed by several journalists and authors, including Les Carlyon in his bestselling book Gallipoli , Mark Baker in his biography of another Gallipoli correspondent, Phillip Schuler , and by Tom Roberts in his award-winning 2015 biography of Keith Murdoch .

Not that Lachlan has always deferred to his father. Manning recounts his subject’s fury when, in 1999, Rupert reneged on an agreement with his second wife Anna, Lachlan’s mother, who had “given up her claim to an equal share of Rupert’s fortune precisely to ensure that Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James would not have to share the control or assets of the Murdoch Family Trust with any children from Rupert’s marriage to Wendi Deng”.

Manning’s biography shows it is not well known that Lachlan and Anna, whose marriage to Rupert lasted much longer than his other three wives, staved off an attempt by Rupert and Elisabeth to sack James after the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. The unfolding scandal overlapped with the period between 2005 and 2014 when Lachlan had left the family company, because his father had not backed him when he was being monstered by executives in the US arm of the business.

Manning also recounts scenes from this period seemingly drafted for Succession. The then head of News Limited in Australia, John Hartigan, was forced to mediate between father and son over the amount of access Lachlan could have to the company’s Sydney headquarters. “Don’t let him into the fucking building,” Rupert is reported as saying. “When you’re out, you’re out.”

Later, the Murdoch siblings began attending family counselling, where they discussed working together to “hold Rupert to account to be a mentor to James and not undermine him, as he had done with Lachlan so many years before”.

Read more: Fox News, Donald Trump's cheerleaders and the journalists who challenged his narrative

Failures and successes

Even Rupert Murdoch’s foes concede he has been a highly successful media businessman; what about Lachlan?

He has had some searing failures. He led News’ role in the 1990s rugby league wars. With James Packer, he made a multi-million dollar losing investment in the internet service provider OneTel. Worst of all, he lost his $150 million investment in Channel Ten, which for a time he headed.

He has also had some notable successes. He invested around $10 million early in a standalone online classified advertising site, realestate.com.au, that is today worth billions. He bought a share of an Indian Premier League cricket team, the Rajasthan Royals, whose value increased dramatically. And he bought into Nova Entertainment, successfully re-setting the pitch of its radio stations, notably Smooth FM.

On the evidence presented in Manning’s biography, Lachlan is a good businessman, if not in the same league as his father, which is admittedly rarefied air. He was given a start in business few others have enjoyed. Sifting the benefits of privilege from natural ability and hard work is not straightforward, but Manning lays out a telling statistic. In 2022, Lachlan’s wealth was estimated at $3.95 billion in the Australian Financial Review’s annual rich list. The same list gave the wealth of his older sister Prudence at $2.58 billion. She “had not worked a day for their father’s business and had mostly escaped the Murdoch spotlight”.

Prudence may well be a savvy investor, and her second husband worked for many years in News Corp. She may also have an eye to what happens to News and Fox in the future. The latest speculation among Murdoch watchers, which Manning discusses, is the possibility that after Rupert Murdoch’s passing, three of the four siblings who retain shares in the family company, Prudence, Elisabeth and James, will combine to oust Lachlan. According to one Wall Street analyst, who has followed News for decades and is privy to the breakdown in the relationship between the siblings, it is “fair to assume Lachlan gets fired the day Rupert dies”.

Read more: Courting the chameleon: how the US election reveals Rupert Murdoch's political colours

Right and wrong

It is hard to know whether this is real or just speculation. It is also not clear how much of the breakdown in family relationships is sibling rivalry and how much is fuelled by ideological differences. James Murdoch has severed ties with News and Fox. He is on the record criticising the company’s reporting on climate change and its coverage of former president Trump’s efforts to reject the electorate’s decision in the 2020 election.

The core question The Successor raises in this reader’s mind, though, is how the portrait of Lachlan as a decent, socially progressive family guy in the first half of the book squares with the picture in the second half of a hard-nosed businessman who endorses the extreme, inflammatory opinions broadcast nightly on Fox News. Does he do this because it attracts viewers or because he actually believes Tucker Carlson’s ravings about the racist “great replacement” theory?

Where does Lachlan stand on these issues? Like his father, he has an abiding love of newspapers, but appears most engaged with them as a business, where Rupert has always had an almost visceral sense of news, both for itself and for what it can do for him and his companies. Manning reports Lachlan’s speeches espousing the virtues of press freedom and his interviews defending Fox, but the speeches are boilerplate and the comments unconvincing. Asked in one interview about Fox’s role in polarising America, Lachlan pointed to criticism of Fox from the far right, saying: “If you’ve got the left and the right criticising you, you’re doing something right.”

Or something profoundly wrong. This is the evidence of several media analyses reported in The Successor. Manning acknowledges that at a key point in the vote-counting for the 2020 presidential election, Fox News correctly called the result. But in the following two weeks the network cast doubt on the result at least 774 times, according to the watchdog group Media Matters.

Media Matters is a left-leaning organisation, so its count might be dismissed as partisan, but an investigation earlier this year by the New York Times of 1100 episodes of Tucker Carlson Tonight found that he had amplified the great replacement theory 400 times. The number of guests who disagreed with Carlson was found to be decreasing, while the length of his monologues was increasing to double, even triple their earlier length.

When the US congressional hearings into the January 6 riot at the Capitol were held earlier this year, Lachlan, according to Manning, decided to air them not on Fox News, but on the little watched Fox Business channel. This was in stark contrast not only to the prominence other television networks gave to the historic hearings, but to the vast amount of airtime previously given on Fox News to the

wild and false claims of a rigged election by Rudy Guiliani and Sidney Powell […] once again calling into question whether the channel was really in the news business at all.

Lachlan has argued that, however florid the opinions aired on Fox, the network’s news coverage is professional and balanced. Its coverage of the congressional hearings belied this claim. It was aired late at night, from 11pm. Apart from muted acknowledgement of the force of some of the testimony, Manning writes, “the rest was about sowing doubt and trying to move on”.

By this point, most have realised that Lachlan is further to the right than his father, whose primary outlets in America, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, have denounced as shameful former president Trump’s role in the Capitol riot. The effect, then, of the second half of The Successor is to undermine the portrait of Lachlan in first half, rendering it almost meaningless. The two can’t be squared.

Ultimately, Lachlan has to take responsibility for what Fox News does and the impact of its broadcasts. If he won’t, there are two multi-billion dollar lawsuits underway to focus his attention. The voting-machine companies, Smartmatic and Dominion, are alleging Fox News knowingly and maliciously spread a false narrative accusing them of election fraud.

Lachlan is still young by the family’s standards. His grandmother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, died aged 103, which Rupert described, perhaps apocryphally, as an early death. As the first biography of the current head of a powerful media empire, The Successor is well worth reading. It probably won’t be the last biography; nor should it be, as there is more to know about Lachlan Murdoch, the enterprise he heads, and the siblings who appear to covet it.

Read more: Cruelty, pettiness and real estate: in Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman wields eye popping anecdotes to plumb the Trump phenomenon

• Lachlan Murdoch
• Book reviews
• Murdoch media

Director, Defence and Security

Director, NIKERI Institute

Biocloud Project Manager - Australian Biocommons

Opportunities with the new CIEHF

School of Social Sciences – Public Policy and International Relations opportunities

Murdoch's superyacht 'Sarissa' arrives

Dutch carbon-fibre performance sloop with cockpit swimming pool.

Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch’s stunning new carbon-fibre superyacht Sarissa has arrived in Sydney in time for summer. Designed by Bill Tripp and built by Dutch yard Vitters, the cutting-edge yacht was two years in the making and is the largest carbon-fibre sloop built to date in the Netherlands.

Vitters Shipyard's website describes  Sarissa as a spectacular 42.6 m carbon globetrotter and performance sloop with a fully modern hull shape, sail plan, and foils. 

Hydraulic sailing and deck systems are said to provide improved reaction speed, load and stiffness to safely facilitate the sailing performance this modern and technical yacht was designed for.

Other custom technical features are an in-house developed hydraulic steering system with rudder feedback, as well as a unique system of back stays and running stays to operate both her cruising and racing sail configurations. The yacht has a lifting keel.

The mainsheet has been placed on an arch spanning the cockpit to keep the deck clear, while the aft cockpit can be transformed into a swimming pool for the kids.

Sarissa's design was guided by close client input and involvement, says Vitters, adding that the yacht will be used to sail all over the world with the family in tow and will take part in the established superyacht regattas.

The layout and deck plan emphasise a clean and modern look, while the family friendly layout below decks boasts a full-beam after stateroom, three guests cabins and three crew cabins.

The stunning interior is by Rhoades Young Design Ltd using a combination of limed oak, dark Italian walnut, Indian rosewood, carbon, dark leather and brushed stainless steel.

Finished in swordfish blue Alexseal paint, with a Ribling 555 tender in the 'garage', the 163 tonne Sarissa has a 56m carbon mast and will be hard to miss moored at Wooloomooloo in Sydney’s CBD.

Meantime, father Rupert reportedly listed his 184ft yacht Rosehearty , built by Perini Navi in Italy in 2006, for sale in September this year for $29.7 million. This followed his divorce from wife Wendi Deng.

Read the latest Boatsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at the Boatsales Network's mobile site . Or download the all-new App.

Stay up to date

Become a boatsales member and get the latest news, reviews and advice straight to your inbox.

Lachlan Murdoch's top secret $150 million superyacht revealed

Posted: April 2, 2023 | Last updated: February 2, 2024

More for You

10 things that happen to your body when you stop drinking alcohol

All Blacks star stretchered off and taken to hospital after ‘serious injury’ in Hurricanes win

The light SUVs with the most boot space in Australia

What household appliances use the most energy? Here's a breakdown, plus tips on how to save money

Landmark Study Confirms Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Is 'Unambiguously Biological'

The worm is turning. Why worms are wriggling their way back into agriculture

‘Entirely reasonable’ for Coalition to block Albanese govt’s detainee bill

Taylor Swift's 22 most essential songs, ranked

Joey's $3m 'marquee player' plea amid Broncos 'bargain'

Why paint your car when you can wrap it?

After years of suffering sleepless nights I've beaten insomnia in a month

Human Embryos Have a Mysterious Yolk Sac, And We Finally Know Why

National Folk Festival relying on loyal customers in an uncertain festival climate

Major drawback to taking medicinal cannabis

20 shows that ended on a major cliffhanger

All the highlights of this year’s Brisbane National 4×4 Show

9 food and drink items you never knew you can freeze

Tinnitus Could Be Our Brain's Way of Coping With Nerve Damage

How Tarryn Thomas can go to any club, at no draft cost

How to Play Bass Guitar: The Complete Beginner’s Guide

• Breaking News
• University Guide
• Meghan Markle
• Prince Harry
• King Charles III

Inside Lachlan Murdoch’s new $30 million TOY as the News Corp heir waits in Sydney for builders to finish his SECRET $175 million superyacht

• Lachlan Murdoch's latest fleet addition has arrived in Australia for the first time
• The mogul added the pricy $30 million vessel to his ever-expanding armada
• He's waiting for the completion of his next monstrous $175 million superyacht  
• Murdoch might be hoping for calmer waters as Fox employees come under fire 

By Max Aldred For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 03:03 EDT, 23 May 2022 | Updated: 03:03 EDT, 23 May 2022

View comments

Lachlan Murdoch's $30 million superyacht has arrived in Australia for the first time as he and the family drop anchor in Sydney and await the completion of their far pricier cruiser.

The News Corp co-chairman bought the classic fixer-upper earlier this year but has only just docked the vessel in Australian waters, keeping it at Rozelle Bay in the city, where Mr Murdoch, his wife Sarah and three children now live. 

He bought the 42-metre Feadship yacht for the huge sum while he waits for his secretive latest purchase to be built, a 59.7m Royal Huisman sloop, believed to be worth £100million (A$175million).

Dropping anchor: the travelling tycoon's yacht arrived in Sydney as he and his family settle into cosmopolitan Sydney life

As they settle into Sydney life, Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch added a $30 million classic yacht to their fleet while they waited the arrival of their secretive $175million superyacht. The couple here pictured at the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscars Party

Splashing cash: The yacht is docked in Rozelle Bay, but the couple have spent millions on a boat shed for the next addition to their fleet

Sun-deck: The Scandinavian style boat has an emphasis on light interiors, windows and outdoor living spaces, including the covered al fresco dining area and massive couch on top deck 

The 1954 refurbished motor yacht, Istros, has accomodation for nine guests in five different cabins.

The boat also features crew quarters for up to ten staff. 

On deck, the boat boasts a sofa and deck chairs, while further along the vessel is a dining table that caters to alfresco eating. 

Jumping ship: The media mogul will use the $30 million yacht but will likely favour his next vessel, a $175 million superyacht

Down in the doldrums: The boat was at one stage completely rusted and lying abandoned in a shipyard, before a massive overhaul saw the boat win awards and fetch a huge price on market

Theseus' ship: The 42.1m classic had its interior, exterior, and engine rooms completely gutted in the 2010s and is unrecognisable from the 1950s boat that was once left in disrepair

The sloop has been entirely remodelled, including a full overhaul of its interior, upgrades to the external fittings and gutting of the engine room.

It was little more than a rusting hulk when it was rescued from a Maltese port in 2015, before it was salvaged and rebuilt. 

Dutch shipyard De Vries Lentsch delivered the yacht in the 1950s but Van Geest design made the interior upgrades in 'family oriented, sunny Scandinavian style'.

However, it was not all smooth sailing with financial difficulties stopping progress on the yacht until 2018.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

The upgrades were then completed by Feadship in 2020.

Istros has won awards for its remodelling and rebuilding with many leasing the ship while she was on the charter market.

That was until Mr Murdoch snapped her up in 2021. 

The boat joins an extensive Murdoch flotilla including the Sarissa, which they paid $30million for, but is now believed to be available for charter.

Lachlan Murdoch is an enthusiastic sailor, having raced his 24-metre sail yacht Swan 82, Ipixuna, at Hamilton Island in early 2021.

He also entered the Sydney to Hobart back in 1997. 

Mooring up: The ship sits between other multi million dollar yachts in the Sydney Harbour near where he now lives

Won't go down with his ship: Lachlan Murdoch left America for Sydney in 2021 after republicans lost power in America

Last year, the couple paid $38 million for a boat shed at Point Piper after relocating to Sydney to live at their Bellevue Hill compound, Le Manoir.

It was believed they would host a delayed 90th birthday celebration for family mogul Rupert Murdoch this year, however the News Corp chairman and CEO has now turned 91.

Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch now own properties in Sydney, Los Angeles and Colorado, as well as a $90 million Gulfstream G650 private jet.

Lachlan uses the private jet to regularly fly between the US and Australia for work. 

Rupert Murdoch (centre) is pictured with his son Lachlan (right) and daughter-in-law Sarah in Sun Valley, Idaho, USA

Rupert Murdoch (left) is pictured speaking with his eldest son Lachlan in Sun Valley, Idaho, USA in 2018

The Murdochs have three children - sons Kalan Alexander, 17, Aidan Patrick, 15, and daughter Aerin Elisabeth, 11 - who all attend private schools across Sydney.

Previous reports have suggested it's not always been smooth sailing for the family of five. 

Last year, sources claimed the family moved to Australia when the US political climate shifted after Joe Biden was elected the US president. 

The pro-Republican family's children apparently experienced 'a rough' time, Nine newspapers reported. 

Share or comment on this article: Lachlan Murdoch's new superyacht docks in Sydney | Photos

Most watched news videos.

• Brit who fled to Sierra Leone after skipping bail is arrested
• Russian plane spiralling out of control crashes in sea in Crimea
• Three men seen running out of Beckenham station after knife attack
• Men loot and set fire to a KFC chicken restaurant in Pakistan
• DUP's Robinson criticises 'conspiracy theories' after Donaldson exit
• Birmingham begins Easter holiday weekend with parties and spirit
• Dramatic moment armed police swoop on gang after DPD driver murder
• Brit skier and friend stuck in chairlift swung by wind at ski resort
• Pope Francis presided over Good Friday service in St Peter's Basilica
• Moment police escort away pro-Palestinian protesters at London demo
• Alica Schmidt and Michelle Janiak spot thief stealing their stuff
• Quiet moments in Dover after the Easter break traffic

Share what you think

• Worst rated

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.

Femail Today

• Follow DailyMail
• Subscribe Daily Mail
• Follow @dailymail
• Follow MailOnline
• Follow Daily Mail

From the Makers of Candy Crush

• Back to top

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group

Advertisement

Supported by

U.S. Eyes $156 Million Yacht in Dubai Linked to a Russian Oligarch

The U.S. Justice Department is taking steps to seize the Madame Gu, a 324-foot luxury yacht, but it will be diplomatically thorny.

• Share full article

By Kate Kelly ,  Michael Forsythe and Julian E. Barnes

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — On a clear morning in late October, the jewel-blue hull of the Madame Gu, one of the world’s most luxurious superyachts, gleamed, its aluminum rails shimmering in the sun. Workers on the pier said they had recently seen people painting, cleaning and generally keeping the ship with its helipad and six guest staterooms in pristine condition.

In past years, such a scene would not have been noteworthy. Many superyachts come and go from Dubai’s Mina Rashid Marina, best known as the home of the Queen Elizabeth 2, the trans-Atlantic ocean liner-turned-hotel that dominates the waterfront here.

But Russia’s war in Ukraine has turned an otherwise routine tableau into a diplomatic battleground between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, an important American ally that has established itself as a safe haven for Russian money and assets out of the reach of U.S. sanctions.

The $156 million Madame Gu epitomizes the problem. In June, the United States designated the vessel, which is linked to Andrei Skoch, a Russian steel magnate and lawmaker under sanctions, as blocked property. That means the yacht cannot use American companies for its upkeep, employ U.S. citizens or even use the dollar. The Justice Department is now taking steps to seize the Madame Gu, according to people with knowledge of the plan.

But the United States can’t seize property in a sovereign nation without permission from its government. The Emirates, which has taken a friendlier position toward Moscow, is balking at cooperating with the United States to pursue oligarchs, American officials said. The Kremlin is also using oligarch-controlled companies in the Emirates to acquire war supplies that the West is trying to keep out of Russia’s reach, according to a Western official involved in the sanctions effort against Russia.

Emirati officials did not comment specifically on the Madame Gu but said in a statement that they took their role “protecting the integrity of the global financial system extremely seriously.”

A closer examination of Russian assets in the Emirates shows that even before the war in Ukraine, Dubai had become a playground for Russians with links to President Vladimir V. Putin. At least 38 businessmen or officials with ties to the Russian president own homes in Dubai that are collectively valued at more than $314 million, according to the Center for Advanced Defense Studies. Five of those owners are under U.S. sanctions.

Since the Russian invasion, Dubai has established itself as a safe haven for Russian yachts and aircraft unable to sail or fly elsewhere. After Russian jets were barred from the European Union in late February, the Emirates became the destination for 14 percent of all private flights leaving Russia, up from 3 percent before the invasion.

“It’s frustrating when you see huge assets that are sitting out there and it appears that the country is not cooperating,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, referring to the Emirates. “It would be nice if there were more common cause against Putin while he’s busy shelling hospitals and schools.”

Mr. Whitehouse is sponsoring legislation that would use proceeds of the sales of seized Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine. Senior officials at the Treasury and State Departments have also complained publicly about the situation.

U.S. officials view the presence of superyachts in places like Dubai and Bodrum, Turkey , as a symptom of wider Russian circumvention of sanctions and continued access to financial markets. Yachts have also come to symbolize the decadence of Russia’s oligarchs, especially at a time when Russian soldiers are scrounging for body armor and sleeping bags on the front lines.

Pursuing the Madame Gu

Built by the Dutch firm Feadship and put into service in 2013, the Madame Gu has a large helicopter pad on its forecastle with a hangar underneath that can double as a squash court when the chopper isn’t on board. The vessel has berthing for 36 crew members, according to one trade magazine.

Mr. Skoch, a member of Russia’s Parliament who is linked to assets worth billions of dollars, according to U.S. court filings, has had sanctions imposed on him twice by the United States, first in 2018 and then after Russia’s invasion this year. The Treasury Department has cited his “longstanding ties to Russian organized criminal groups.”

Mr. Skoch could not be reached and did not respond to messages left at his office at Parliament.

In an interview in October about the government’s broader efforts to go after the assets of oligarchs, Andrew Adams, a federal prosecutor leading the Department of Justice’s KleptoCapture task force, declined to discuss the Madame Gu. But the United States, he said, is warning companies they must not do business with individuals and assets under sanctions. The government, he said, will pursue oligarch-owned assets whose sale could be used to aid Ukraine.

“Where we know there is an asset that can potentially provide significant remuneration for Ukraine, that obviously is an attractive case to pursue,” he said.

U.S. officials are likely to use the case they made for impounding a $90 million Airbus business jet linked to Mr. Skoch in August as a blueprint for seizing the Madame Gu, said people familiar with the plan.

That means investigators will aim to show that the owner of the vessel, or the companies that have been providing services to it, have intersected with the U.S. financial system.

“If there are U.S. dollars or a U.S. nexus associated with supporting this vessel, massive enforcement actions could take place,” said Adam M. Smith, a former official overseeing sanctions at the Treasury Department. Companies that provide support to entities under sanctions could potentially face their own sanctions, said Mr. Smith, who is now a lawyer at Gibson Dunn in Washington.

This year the United States has carried out two high-profile seizures of yachts tied to Russians under sanctions, working with cooperative governments. The $300 million Amadea was taken in Fiji in May and sailed to San Diego under an American flag. In April, the United States worked with Spanish police to seize the $90 million Tango.

A Problematic Partner

Diplomatically, the Emirates has been reluctant to take a clear anti-Russian position when it comes to the war in Ukraine. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, recently met with Mr. Putin in St. Petersburg, and the Emirati foreign minister recently hosted his Russian counterpart. Yet Sheikh Mohammed has also talked with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, more than once and recently gave the country $100 million in humanitarian aid.

The United States has publicly expressed dismay over the mixed messages.

During a visit to Dubai in June, Wally Adeyemo, the U.S. deputy treasury secretary, warned of the need for vigilance and proactive steps in combating Russian evasion. That same month Barbara Leaf, the State Department’s under secretary for Near East Affairs, said at a congressional hearing that regarding the Emirates, she was “not happy at all with the record at this point” on sanctions enforcement. Mr. Adeyemo reiterated his concerns in a meeting with Emirati officials in October in Washington.

A senior State Department official said in a statement to The New York Times that the agency continues “to reinforce the importance of conducting enhanced due diligence to prevent sanctions evasion and investigating allegations of such activity” to the Emirates.

The Treasury Department declined to comment on the Madame Gu or the relationship with the Emirates.

Last month, the Treasury Department announced it had placed sanctions on an Emirates-based company, Constellation Advisors Ltd., that the American government said was operating on behalf of a nephew of another Russian oligarch, Suleiman Kerimov. Mr. Kerimov, according to American court documents, was the owner of the Amadea superyacht .

American officials are also worried the Russian government is using the Emirates to acquire military supplies for its war in Ukraine. On Nov. 15, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two Emirates-based transportation firms that had worked with another Iranian firm under sanctions, which in turn had helped transport drones and personnel from Iran to Russia.

Moored in Dubai

Based on a recent visit to Dubai’s Mina Rashid Marina , where the Madame Gu is moored, it is clear that international companies are playing a critical role in its care.

The Emirates-based company DP World, through its subsidiary P&O Marinas , oversees the pier where the Madame Gu is moored. Employees from another DP World subsidiary , World Security, staff the small guard box at the entrance. That makes DP World, which is owned by Dubai’s royal family, potentially vulnerable to American sanctions.

DP World “fully complies with all applicable local and national laws and intends to continue doing the same regarding the Madame Gu and other vessels utilizing our services,” said Adal Mirza, a spokesman for the company. He added that DP World had not yet heard from the United States or other countries that had placed Mr. Skoch under sanctions, including Britain and the European Union.

A generator set that dock workers said in late October was powering the Madame Gu — two container-like structures near its stern — bore the distinctive orange logo of Aggreko , a British company. The generator set was connected to the superyacht by thick cords; one of the containers was emitting grayish exhaust.

At the Mina Rashid Marina, soon after Aggreko was contacted by The Times, workers removed the generator. “Having identified that the generator was being used to power a vessel that is allegedly connected to a sanctioned person, we immediately terminated this rental and have since recovered the generator,” the company said in a statement.

Mr. Mirza, the DP World spokesman, said the Aggreko generator had been replaced with one from a local supplier.

P&O Marinas arranged for the diesel generator to provide power for the Madame Gu because that part of the pier, a holding area, has no shore-supplied electric power, said a port official in Dubai, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the press.

“At the end of the day, if the U.A.E. hasn’t imposed sanctions, it’s not really their job to enforce other countries’ laws within their borders,” said Nabeel Yousef, a Washington-based partner at the law firm Freshfields, where he runs the sanctions practice. Nevertheless, “companies should not take comfort in the fact that their country has not imposed sanctions,” he added, “because even the smallest connection to the U.S. can lead to U.S. penalties.”

There has also been a notable absence onboard the Madame Gu in recent weeks: a flag. Unlike other ships moored nearby, including the Quantum Blue, a superyacht linked to the billionaire Sergei Galitsky, the Madame Gu appears to be stateless, apparently having been deflagged by the Cayman Islands.

Cayman Islands officials didn’t respond to an emailed inquiry about the ship’s status.

If DP World were to face fallout from U.S. sanctions enforcers, it wouldn’t be the first time the company has been the focus of attention in Washington. In 2006, DP World was seeking to manage some terminal operations at six American ports but dropped out of the deal after a bipartisan uproar in Congress.

Anton Troianovski contributed reporting from Turin, Italy, and Oleg Matsnev from Berlin.

Kate Kelly covers money, influence, and policy as a correspondent in the Washington bureau of the Times. Before that, she spent twenty years covering Wall Street deals, key players and their intersection with politics. She is the author of three books, including "The Education of Brett Kavanaugh." More about Kate Kelly

Michael Forsythe is a reporter on the investigations team. He was previously a correspondent in Hong Kong, covering the intersection of money and politics in China. He has also worked at Bloomberg News and is a United States Navy veteran. More about Michael Forsythe

Julian E. Barnes is a national security reporter based in Washington, covering the intelligence agencies. Before joining The Times in 2018, he wrote about security matters for The Wall Street Journal. More about Julian E. Barnes

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

Ahead of the U.S. elections, Russia is intensifying efforts to elevate candidates  who oppose aid for Ukraine and support isolationism, disinformation experts say.

President Vladimir Putin said that claims Russia planned to invade other countries were “nonsense,” but warned them against hosting  warplanes meant for Ukraine.

A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack damaged power plants  and caused blackouts for more than a million Ukrainians in what Ukrainian officials said was one of the war’s largest assaults on energy infrastructure.

Symbolism or Strategy?: Ukrainians say that defending places with little strategic value is worth the cost in casualties and weapons , because the attacking Russians pay an even higher price. American officials aren’t so sure.

Elaborate Tales: As the Ukraine war grinds on, the Kremlin has created increasingly complex fabrications online  to discredit Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, and undermine the country’s support in the West.

Targeting Russia’s Oil Industry: With its army short of ammunition and troops to break the deadlock on the battlefield, Kyiv has increasingly taken the fight beyond the Ukrainian border, attacking oil infrastructure deep in Russian territory .

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .