The 72.5m Axioma was seized by steel billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky in March following sanctions from the UK, EU and US. The Office of the Marshal of the Admiralty in Ukraine said on Tuesday that “63 bids were received” for the Axioma, but declined to detail the value of the bids for the yacht, which has six luxury guest cabins, a swimming pool, a 3D cinema room. gym, hot tub and fully equipped spa. “The contractor will be selected by the Admiralty, but the details of the bidder and the value of the bid will remain confidential,” the court said in a statement. “Details of the vessel’s sale value will be made available once the transaction is completed, which could take place in approximately 10 to 14 days.” The sale of Axioma has sparked controversy because it is being sold not for the benefit of the Ukrainian people but for a US investment bank, JP Morgan, which claims Pumpyansky owes it more than €20.5m (£17m). Pumpyansky was until March this year the owner and chairman of steel pipe manufacturer OAO TMK, a supplier to Russian state energy company Gazprom. The UK said the billionaire, who said he had amassed a fortune of around £1.84bn, was one of the oligarchs “closest to Putin”. The yacht was seized by the Gibraltar government following a legal claim by JP Morgan, which said Pumpyansky’s holding company Pyrene Investments owed it more than $20 million. JP Morgan said the fact the billionaire had been sanctioned meant the terms of the loan had been breached because he could not legally accept a loan repayment from Pyrene and asked the Gibraltar courts to hold and sell the yacht. There has been an “unexpected late surge of prospective buyers” around the world for the vessel, Nigel Hollyer, the Gibraltar High Court Admiralty broker who led the auction, told the Guardian last week. The yacht, which was designed by renowned superyacht designer Alberto Pinto, was built by Dunya Yachts in Turkey in 2013. The vessel, originally named Red Square before being renamed Axioma, was available to other millionaires for charter for $558,500 per week . “With its sumptuous interiors, vast array of onboard facilities and a highly trained and professional crew, a luxury yacht vacation aboard Axioma motor yacht promises to be nothing short of spectacular,” the charter listing states. The Axioma is the first seized luxury yacht known to be auctioned since the West imposed sanctions on powerful Russians following the February invasion of Ukraine. Dozens of yachts and homes linked to Russian oligarchs have been seized by world governments since the invasion. British and US authorities have said they will seek to send proceeds from asset sales to Ukraine. James Jaffa, a lawyer at British yacht firm Jaffa & Co who represented Axioma before it was seized, said the ship was likely to sell for “well below” €20 million. After the auction, he said, the shipbroker, crew wages, yard and maintenance should be paid before the bank. However, a successful sale would be a “benchmark” for other banks seeking to recoup their losses by auctioning the repossessed assets and other assets of sanctioned oligarchs. “Axioma will be a watershed moment for assets that have bank financing against them because all the other banks will realize that the asset can be sold and they can get some or all of their money back,” he said. He stressed, however, that assets without financial claims against them that were seized by governments only because of sanctions would be harder to sell.
