Suleiman Kerimov: Senator, Polyus Investor, the French Case and the Amadea

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Photo: Vardan Papikyan, Unsplash License, via Unsplash

Sanctions status — checked 18 October 2026

Listed by: US (OFAC SDN) · UK (OFSI) · EU

This person appears on the sanctions lists named above. Other countries are covered in the sanctions section below. Date of birth used for identification: 1966-03-12. Checked against the OFAC SDN list, the UK OFSI consolidated list and the EU consolidated list. Sanctions lists change without notice — verify against the primary source before relying on this.

Current figure: Forbes puts Suleiman Kerimov and family’s net worth at $25.7 billion as of 18 October 2026 (Forbes profile). Estimates are revised continuously and Forbes and Bloomberg frequently disagree.

Suleiman Kerimov is a Russian investor and politician who has represented Dagestan in the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, since 2008. He made his fortune through the oil trader Nafta Moskva and through large stakes in Gazprom, Sberbank, Polymetal, Uralkali and the gold miner Polyus. In 2017 he was arrested in France in a tax investigation concerning villas on the Riviera. The United States has sanctioned him since 2018, and the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Switzerland and Australia since 2022. In 2025 a US court ordered the forfeiture of the superyacht Amadea, which US authorities linked to Kerimov in the forfeiture case.

  • Born: 12 March 1966 in Derbent, Dagestan (Kommersant, Federation Council)
  • Education: Dagestan State University, economics, 1989
  • Office: member of the Federation Council for Dagestan since February 2008; current term from 1 October 2026 to September 2031
  • Sanctions as of October 2026: United States (since 2018), United Kingdom, European Union, Canada, Switzerland, Australia (since 2022), Ukraine (since October 2022)

Business career

Kerimov graduated from the economics faculty of Dagestan State University in 1989 (Kommersant, Federation Council). From 1989 to 1995 he worked at the Eltav plant in Dagestan, starting as an economist. From 1993 he represented the plant at its Moscow subsidiary, Federal Industrial Bank, which he bought outright in 1995 (Kommersant, The Moscow Times). His breakthrough came with the purchase of the oil trader Nafta Moskva, which Kommersant dates to October 1998 and The Bell to 1999. From 2004 Nafta Moskva bought large stakes in Gazprom and Sberbank (Kommersant, The Bell, Kommersant, 2006). In 2005 he bought the gold and silver miner Polymetal, and in June 2008 he sold 68 percent of it (The Moscow Times).

After selling most of his Russian assets, he invested in Western banks, among them Morgan Stanley, and lost heavily in the 2008 financial crisis (Forbes, The Bell). In 2009 he bought almost 40 percent of Polyus, Russia’s largest gold producer (The Bell, Forbes). In April 2013 he announced that he was transferring the beneficial rights to his business assets to the Suleiman Kerimov Foundation, registered in Switzerland (Interfax, Vedomosti). In November 2013 Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim agreed to buy his 21.75 percent stake in the potash producer Uralkali, which was held through the foundation (The Moscow Times, The Moscow Times, September 2013).

In 2015 Kerimov transferred his stake in Polyus to his son Said (Forbes, Bloomberg via Mining.com). In April 2022 Said Kerimov sold 29.99 percent of Polyus and left its board. In May 2022 he gave his remaining holding company to a fund supporting Islamic organisations, and Polyus said he no longer had any economic interest in the company (Bloomberg via Mining.com, Mining.com). In 2023 Polyus bought back the 29.99 percent stake (Interfax, The Moscow Times).

Duma and Federation Council

Kerimov was elected to the State Duma in 1999 and 2003 for Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party and joined United Russia in April 2007 (Kommersant, Kommersant, 2006, The Moscow Times). Since February 2008 he has been a member of the Federation Council, delegated by the People’s Assembly of Dagestan (Kommersant, Forbes). The Federation Council lists his current term as running from 1 October 2026 to September 2031. He sits on its committee on rules and parliamentary procedure. He received state awards in 2017, 2021 and 2026, most recently the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, fourth class (Federation Council, The Moscow Times).

The case in France

On 20 November 2017 Kerimov was arrested at Nice airport on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering (OSW, Kommersant). The investigation concerned villas on the French Riviera. According to investigators, one villa in Antibes had been bought in 2008 for a declared price of 35 million euros, while 127 million euros had actually been paid (franceinfo/AFP, Interfax, OSW). Kerimov pleaded not guilty and said he owned no property outside Russia (OSW).

He was released after two days on bail of 5 million euros. On 6 December 2017 the appeals court in Aix-en-Provence left him at liberty but raised the bail to 40 million euros and barred him from leaving the Alpes-Maritimes department (Caucasian Knot, RFE/RL). On 28 June 2018 the same court annulled the charge of laundering the proceeds of tax evasion. According to Le Temps, his lawyers won on points of law, not on the substance of the case (RFE/RL, Le Temps).

On 19 March 2019 he was again placed under formal investigation, this time for complicity in aggravated tax fraud, and released under judicial supervision on bail of 20 million euros (Le Temps, TASS, Interfax). We found no verdict and no reliable report on how this charge ended.

The superyacht Amadea

In 2022 the United States had the 106-metre motor yacht Amadea seized in Fiji. US authorities alleged that Kerimov was its ultimate owner. Lawyers for the registered owner denied this and said that the yacht belonged to the Russian businessman Eduard Khudainatov. On 3 May 2022 Fiji’s High Court allowed the US seizure warrant to be registered (Reuters via Malay Mail, Reuters via Al Jazeera). In October 2023 the US government filed a civil forfeiture case in Manhattan (Bloomberg).

On 10 March 2025 Judge Dale Ho ruled that Khudainatov had no plausible claim to own the yacht. Prosecutors called Khudainatov a straw owner for Kerimov, while his lawyer said there was “simply nothing to connect Suleiman Kerimov to the vessel” (Reuters via Baird Maritime). The court then ordered the forfeiture and sale of the yacht. Khudainatov’s lawyers announced an appeal (RFE/RL). The auction was scheduled for 10 September 2025 (auction information memorandum, page 1). The Justice Department’s audited financial report records that the sale was completed on 10 October 2025 for USD 187 million. That report does not identify the buyer (DOJ/OIG Report 26-013, Note 22, printed page 56 / PDF page 62). On 1 June 2026 the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the ruling (Bloomberg Law, YachtBuyer). We found no public statement by Kerimov himself on the yacht.

Sanctions

CountryListedStatus in October 2026
United States6 April 2018Listed (OFAC SDN list), designated again on 30 September 2022
United Kingdom15 March 2022Listed (UK sanctions list, RUS1039)
European Union15 March 2022Listed (Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/427)
Switzerland16 March 2022Listed (SECO)
Canada23 March 2022Listed (Canada’s consolidated autonomous sanctions list)
Australia8 April 2022Listed (Australian consolidated list)
Ukraine19 October 2022Listed for ten years (Presidential Decree No. 727/2022)

The US Treasury designated Kerimov on 6 April 2018 as an official of the Russian government, as a member of the Federation Council. On 30 September 2022 it designated him again under a new executive order (US Treasury, 2018, US Treasury, 2022). The United Kingdom listed him on 15 March 2022 as a member of the Federation Council who supported the ratification of Russia’s treaties with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (UK sanctions list). The EU listed him on the same day (Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/427). Australia listed him by an instrument dated 7 April 2022, which took effect the next day, as “Owner of Nafta Moscow”; its consolidated list of 16 October 2026 still includes him (Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (No. 11) Instrument 2022, Australian Sanctions Consolidated List, 16 October 2026). Ukraine’s sanctions annex of 19 October 2022 lists him for ten years (Decree No. 727/2022).

Members of his family are also sanctioned. On 14 November 2022 the US Treasury designated his wife Firuza, his son Said and his daughters Gulnara and Amina as his spouse and adult children (US Treasury, Interfax). The United Kingdom listed Said Kerimov on 13 April 2022 and Gulnara Kerimova on 11 April 2023 (UK sanctions list). We checked the US, UK, Canadian and Polish lists on 7 October 2026, the Swiss list of 5 October 2026, Australia’s consolidated list of 16 October 2026 and the EU list as of 22 September 2026. Poland does not list him.

About this profile

This profile was rewritten in October 2026. The 2022 version claimed that the French tax case had been dropped in 2019 without charges. In fact a new charge was brought in March 2019. It also said that he had been the president’s envoy to the North Caucasus from 2011 to 2013, a post held at that time by Alexander Khloponin. It called him “Putin’s banker”, a nickname that The Moscow Times has used for the financier Vladimir Kogan. And it described a stake in Barclays, a dispute and defamation case with Oleg Deripaska, and wrong dates for his political offices, none of which we could confirm. These statements have been removed. The net worth figure in the box at the top of this page comes from Forbes and carries its date.

Sources

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