One of the world's most expensive superyachts sailed through the mist into San Diego Bay.
This is the yacht that is going to the Amadea.
There was an American flag at the stern of the boat.
Most of the vessel's life was spent in the Mediterranean. It was destined for a drab concrete wharf under the control of the US.
In the words of US President Joe Biden, it is the most ostentatious trophy claimed by the task force.
It was granted exclusive access to the scene of the seizure.
As missiles rained down on Ukraine in the early days of the war, Andrew Adams was sitting in his New York office with a list of billionaires.
Time seemed to be running out. He could see on the map that the superyachts were sailing towards countries where they thought their assets would be safe from sanctions.
One mega yacht stood out among the opulent floating targets.
There is a helipad at one end of the Amadea and a 10-metre pool at the other. A gym, beauty salon, cinema and wine cellar can be found inside. Accommodations for 36 crew and 16 guests are available.
It looks like the tip of a large ship. An image of purity seems to be projected by the sleek lines and white facade. Keeping the Amadea shipshape comes at a huge cost, with an annual running cost of more than 25 million dollars. The source of the wealth locked away in the marble floors of the yacht is not clear.
Suleiman Kerimov is the true owner, according to investigators. The claim is rejected by Mr Kerimov, a senator.
Forbes says that the 56-year-old is one of the richest men in Russia. He made a lot of money after the fall of the Soviet Union, buying up large stakes in Russian companies.
Mr Kerimov was the subject of a US sanction. The EU said in March that he had supported or implemented policies which undermined the independence, stability and security ofUkraine.
The game of cat and mouse is played between some of the world's most powerful nations and some of Russia's richest men.
The list of Russian elites banned from spending their money in Western countries had been growing since the annexation of the peninsula. The attention was renewed when tanks rolled into Ukraine.
President Biden announced on 1 March that they were joining with European allies to find and seize their private jets.
Mr Adams, a lean, blue-eyed prosecutor with the US Department of Justice, was placed at the head of a new task force dedicated to enforcement of US sanctions.
He was going to use his experience to fight crime.
The task force, which includes agents and analysts from the FBI and the US Secret Service, aims to identify high-ranking targets, find evidence of any law breaking and then "seize assets as quickly and as aggressively as we can."
The Amadea "scrambling out of waters where we would normally be able to seize it" two weeks after the invasion.
He said that it was critical when it turned off its transponder. The boat tried to leave a trail.
The Amadea traveled through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean after leaving Antigua in the Caribbean on 12 March.
It arrived in Fiji after more than two weeks at sea. The yacht was supposed to leave for the Philippines within 48 hours, but the US thought it was going to Russia.
Mr Adams said that investigators in the US were looking for any violations that could be used to seize the Amadea. They wanted to prove that Mr Kerimov owned the boat and that US dollars had been used to purchase it.
Mr Adams said that it takes more than a search to find the true owner of a yacht. It can be hard to understand who owns these vessels. In countries where information is tightly controlled and not something that the US can easily access, ownership is hidden behind shell companies and trusts.
Russia's war has led to a boom of information provided by co-operative foreign countries, including places where company ownership is hard to investigate.
The task force had to conduct a massive investigation in a short time, with members interviewing sources with knowledge of the boat's finances.
We were able to get that information because of the huge amount of support for Ukraine.
Three years after he was first sanctioned by the US Treasury, investigators discovered evidence that proves Mr Kerimov has owned the boat.
The boat's owner, Mr Kerimov, had a large amount of US dollars that flowed into the boat in violation of US sanctions.
Records of financial transactions were found when the Amadea docked in Fiji. FBI agents applied to a US judge for a warrant to take the boat. Many of the details of the FBI's reasons for believing Mr Kerimov was the yacht's true beneficial owner have been blacked out.
The Amadea is not owned by Mr Kerimov according to his representatives.
A local lawyer interceded on behalf of a company that is formally registered as the owner of the boat after it arrived in the Pacific island. It took seven weeks for the appeals against the warrant to be heard by the supreme court of the country.
The lawyer said there was no evidence that the yacht was used for crime and that it was actually owned by a different billionaire.
The ex-CEO of the state-owned oil giant is a man. He owned one of the biggest private oil companies in Russia, according to the European Union. The US does not sanction him.
There was "undisputed evidence" that Mr. Khuadainatov owned the Amadea, according to the lawyer. The $700 million yacht linked to Putin has been frozen by Italian authorities. The US claims he is a "straw man" in order to hide the true owners.
Mr Adams said it was implausible to own several half-billion dollar yachts.
Requests for comment have not been responded to by Mr. Khudainatov.
The Amadea was moored in the turquoise waters of the Pacific in early May. A group of men in dark suits boarded the boat as the crew members waited on deck.
It looked like a luxury yacht that was on a high-speed chase across the Pacific. He said that it had been battened down a lot.
They found a lot of ornate furnishings inside.
The total value of the luxuries is being calculated, and the authenticity of the most prominent pieces is being investigated. A lavish object resembling a rare egg stood out among them. The Russian Imperial family only made a few dozen of them.
"Maybe it's a real egg, maybe it's not a real egg," he said. The time will tell.
The US was given the go-ahead to seize the boat by the Fijian supreme court. It had become a big deal.
After the ruling in June, the island's chief of police posed for photos on a deck with US embassy officials. The boat was going to sail under the flag of the United States.
The crew was replaced before it could leave for the US. He said that they needed a crew that was reliable.
The Amadea sailed into San Diego Bay on the 27th of June.
It was a proud moment for the taskforce, but it was just the beginning of a process in the US. It isn't the end.
The goal for the US is to sell the boat. It's to give money to Ukraine.
They need to convince a court that Mr Kerimov is the real owner of the boat and that sanctions were violated to pay for it.
To prepare, investigators are analyzing a lot of data, including bank records and electronic communications.
The task force has other superyachts in its net. The FBI and the Spanish police seized the $90 million Tango before the Amadea arrived. Mr Adams wants to sell it to help rebuild Ukraine.
Security experts in Europe have been following the story of the Amadea. On either side of the Atlantic, law enforcement approaches are vastly different.
The boats are being held in the EU but not in the UK.
Tom Keatinge is the director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute.
He says authorities in London and Brussels are struggling to design legal mechanisms that will allow them to seize assets that have been frozen.
More than 120 tycoons with an estimated combined net worth of over $130 billion have been sanctioned by the UK since the invasion. Actions have been focused on freezing assets.
Grant Shapps, a former transport secretary, filmed a selfies-style video with a £38m yacht on the day it was taken into custody by the National Crime Agency.
The move had turned an icon of Russia's power and wealth into a clear and stark warning to Putin and his cronies.
The UK relied on a law with a larger scope than those used by its international allies.
The owner of the boat is not on a list of sanctioned people. Under UK law vessels can be held for being owned or operated by someone connected with Russia.
According to Guy Booth, the yacht's captain, Mr Naumenko is not a close personal friend of Putin.
He said that the boat would be four times the size if it were owned by an industrialist.
Mr Shapps appeared to be "posing like a big game hunter who had just shot a lion" according to Mr Booth.
The Department for Transport said that it stood by its decision to detain the Phi, and that the UK would continue to act within its power to make life harder for Russians.
Mr Booth is positive that someday they will sail off down the river.
Mr Adams expects more countries to follow the example of the Western governments.
He said that they wanted to make it difficult to exist as a person who could draw on the benefits of corruption in Russia and the West.
Most of the time, the Amadea was in Europe. According to an analysis for the BBC, it dropped anchor on Monaco, Marseilles and Montenegro.
At the edge of a busy cargo terminal is where it is moored today. Locals have taken to sharing pictures of their new neighbours on social media.
One person said they should open it to the homeless.
They hope to sell it to help Ukrainian refugees.
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