Burevestmarin Challenges in US Court the Sale of Tanker Bella 1 Bound for Scrapping

On November 4, Russian company Burevestmarin filed new objections with the US courts challenging the seizure and sale of the tanker Bella 1, also known as Marinera and, more recently, Era. The filing coincided with the vessel's arrival in Chattogram, Bangladesh, under that latest name, bound for scrapping.

According to Burevestmarin's lawyers, the US government sold the vessel to buyer GMS for $9.1 million, of which roughly $8.1 million remained net after deducting more than $1 million in operating costs. However, GMS reportedly resold the ship on October 14 to a Bangladeshi recycler for $20,763,062.25, a figure the Russian defense considers at odds with what the United States had told the court regarding the vessel's valuation during scrapping. Marine Insight added that, according to the lawyers themselves, the ship's scrap-only value would be around $21 million, well above the price paid.

The case originated in the pursuit of the Bella 1 by the US Coast Guard across the Atlantic, after the vessel allegedly attempted to evade the US blockade on Venezuela while carrying Iranian oil, according to Marine Insight. The ship was intercepted and seized, with dates varying by source: Maritime Executive places the chase between December 2025 and January 2026, with the vessel subsequently taken to Scotland, while Ports News Russia states that the seizure occurred on January 7, 2026. Washington maintained that the vessel was carrying Venezuelan and Iranian oil in violation of sanctions and that it was operating without a valid flag, after unsuccessfully invoking a Guyanese registration that authorities deemed illegitimate.

The US government refused to recognize the sale of the vessel to Burevestmarin or the attempt to register it in Russia during the chase, and opposed the request for a temporary restraining order, arguing that the company took months to file its claim and acted with "unclean hands" by involving itself in the vessel's movements despite the Coast Guard's stop orders. Maritime Executive also noted that Washington cited a "threatening" email sent in March 2026 by Burevest representatives to the company contracted to tow the vessel. Marine Insight added that at a July hearing, Department of Justice attorney Rajbir Datta stated that the government spent nearly $60 million on the vessel's maintenance and repairs, and that the dispute is part of a broader conflict over whether the transport of Iranian oil benefits the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, while Burevestmarin is pursuing similar litigation over other vessels in its fleet, the Galileo and the Skipper.

Ports News Russia reported that Burevestmarin LLC was registered in Ryazan, Russia, on July 10, 2025, with maritime cargo transport as its main activity, under the direction of Ilia Ilich Bugai, its sole shareholder. The ship's former captain, Georgian national Avtandil Kalandadze, received a 10-month prison sentence in the United States in August after pleading guilty to disobeying Coast Guard orders during the chase. Meanwhile, Global Marketing Systems, the original buyer designated by Washington, is a Dubai-based company founded in 1992 that specializes in purchasing vessels for recycling, with more than 5,000 transactions completed.