Global Ports Holding, the world’s largest cruise port company, has said it “has not and will not receive any service fees or other payments” to provide a seat on Solaris, a 140-meter yacht that arrived at the dock last month. in the Turkish resort of Bodrum. On Friday, the Financial Times reported that lawyers said the company was in danger of violating UK sanctions law if it accepted fees for hosting the boat. Abramovich, 55, was among a group of Russian oligarchs targeted by UK sanctions last month as London stepped up its efforts to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies for invading Ukraine. While information about the final owner of the Solaris is not available to the public, it has been widely reported that the yacht belongs to Abramovich. In a statement, GPH did not say whether it had made any efforts to determine the true owner of the ship, only that it had made “recent speculation” in the press. The company, whose co-founder and president is Turkish, said that as an operator rather than the owner of the state port, it could not reject a boat if its authorities had given it permission to enter. Two experts in Turkish maritime law have offered conflicting views on the validity of this argument. Kerem Ertan, an associate of Istanbul-based law firm Tam & Ertan, said the port operator was right when he said he could not refuse yacht services in most cases – and should “make a comparison” between violates British and Turkish law. However, Cem Caspi, a senior associate at Istanbul-based AKT, said it was at GPH’s “discretion” to determine whether it would allow a superyacht to use its port, adding that there would be “no contradiction between of Turkish law and British law “. Differing legal opinions highlight the difficulty that companies operating abroad may face when seeking to comply with sanctions regimes that may be in breach of local law. The port operator said it had always strictly adhered to international sanctions rules and its responsibilities as a Bodrum port operator. He asserted that the mooring of the superyacht did not constitute a breach of UK sanctions on Russia because it had taken place in a port outside the UK “where the GPH has no ownership or authority to accept or reject any ship or yacht applicable laws “. The GPH did not say whether or not it had contacted the UK Financial Sanctions Enforcement Bureau for guidance on its position. John Strange, a consultant at the Maritime and Commercial Disputes Group at Penningtons Manches Cooper, said providing such a service free of charge to a person subject to sanctions would not relieve a company of its sanction. “I am not at all convinced that they have escaped from the forest to it,” he said. According to Michael Biltoo, a partner at Kennedys Law Firm, a bunk for a yacht in a marina can cost λί 10,000 a day or more. The Solaris, which arrived in Turkey on March 21 after drifting in European waters, remained anchored in the cruise port of Bodrum on Sunday afternoon.
