The court canceled the seizure of Medvedchuk’s yacht

The court in Croatia canceled the arrest of the traitor to Ukraine, former oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, on the “Royal Romance” yacht.

ARMA has still not been able to realize Viktor Medvedchuk’s yacht arrested in Croatia, said the first deputy chairman of the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Yaroslav Zhelezniak.

According to him, Ukraine may lose this asset altogether, because the District Court of the city of Split canceled the seizure of the yacht due to the lack of an indictment in a criminal case from the Prosecutor General’s Office.

In April 2022, the Office of the Prosecutor General sent a request for international legal assistance to the competent authorities of Croatia. The court complied with the request, seized Medvedchuk’s property for two years – this is the maximum term provided for by the country’s legislation – and transferred it to ARMA for further implementation.

The Croatian court’s decision stipulates that every three months the existence of further conditions for the imposition of interim measures will be checked.

In total, the Prosecutor General’s Office sent six requests to extend the term of arrest of the yacht, which the Croatian side satisfied and successfully fulfilled. From the moment the decisions of the Ukrainian and Croatian courts were received, in the period from June 2022 to June 2023, ARMA did not take any measures aimed at implementing the court decisions. It is also about the formation of the legal field and the development of mechanisms for the realization of seized assets.

Therefore, since receiving two national court decisions and legalized decisions by the Croatian court in Split, ARMA has not produced any results. Only starting from July 2023, ARMA began work on the procedure for the sale of seized assets abroad. And at a time when ARMA had already identified the winning auction house that would sell the yacht, the latter refused to sell it, just like its predecessor.

In June 2024, the Supreme Criminal Court of Croatia, by its decision, returned the case to the District Court of Split and appointed another judge in the case.

On June 25, the court decided to cancel the seizure of the “Royal Romance” yacht. The decision states that the reason for the cancellation is the failure to submit an indictment in a criminal case from the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Currently, Medvedchuk’s assets (including the “Royal Romance” yacht) are blocked by the decision of the Permanent Governmental Working Group on Sanctions of the Republic of Croatia. Sanctions block the possibility of the yacht leaving the port, but do not solve the issue comprehensively and do not allow the realization or use of property in the interests of the state.

That is, the delay in the investigation of the criminal proceedings against the traitor of Ukraine Viktor Medvedchuk led to the cancellation of the arrest of the yacht in one of the four proceedings, and ARMA cannot fulfill the national decisions of the courts on the sale of the vessel. In addition, such a situation threatens that Ukraine may lose this valuable asset altogether.