Spanish authorities have now moved to seize the frozen 85m superyacht Meridian A. As reported by SuperyachtNews at the time, the yacht had previously been moved from MB92 Barcelona to Marina Vela after the vessel failed to make payments for works. Reporting in Bloomberg has stated that a complaint laid by MB92 has now led the Spanish court has authorised the seizure. 

The Lürssen-built superyacht has also changed its name from Valerie to Meridian A, apparently while sanctioned. The ultimate beneficial owner of the vessel is the sanctioned Sergey Chemezov, the CEO of Rostec, the largest tech and defence conglomerate in Russia.

Sergey Chemezov has been on the US and EU sanctions list since 2014 after supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea. However, the European Union's sanctions list has revealed that the yacht is technically owned by his stepdaughter, Anastasia Ignatova. Chemezov was also named in the Pandora Papers last year.

The ship was technically frozen in March while it was still in Spain, however, it wasn’t moved until just over a month ago. Speaking to Reuters, a transport ministry source confirmed that payments for the ship's repairs at Barcelona's MB92 shipyard stopped soon after the freezing order.

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