Before his death, late Access Bank co-founder Herbert Wigwe and his wife, Doreen Chizoba Wigwe, owned a luxury yacht — one of the many expensive possessions that reflected the extraordinary wealth they accumulated during their lifetime.
The yacht, named Chitochi, was reportedly named after their daughter, Otutochi. Ironically, following the tragic death of her parents, Otutochi has found herself playing an important role in dealing with assets left behind for herself and her younger siblings.
Herbert and Chizoba died in a helicopter crash on February 9, 2024, alongside other passengers. Court documents later revealed that the couple jointly owned all the issued shares of a British Virgin Islands company, Grosvenor Marine Ventures Ltd., and were its only directors. The company was incorporated in the BVI on March 7, 2012.
Its principal asset was Chitochi, a 2016 Custom Line 108 luxury yacht measuring approximately 33 metres (108 feet). The yacht was based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was placed on the market at an asking price of $6.5 million.
The yacht was not simply a display piece. It could be used privately by Herbert, his wife and their close associates, while also being available for charter to people able to afford the cost of enjoying such a vessel.
But luxury comes with a price.
A yacht of this size can require substantial annual expenditure on crew, insurance, fuel, berthing, maintenance and periodic refits. And unlike an investment asset that may appreciate, a yacht generally depreciates while continuing to generate significant running costs.
That became particularly important after Herbert and Chizoba died.
The offshore company problem
Grosvenor Marine Ventures Ltd. was struck off the BVI Register of Companies and dissolved on November 5, 2024, following non-payment of its annual fees. The yacht remained the company's principal asset.
This created a complicated legal problem for the family.
With both shareholders and directors dead, there was no straightforward person who could exercise the company's rights over the yacht. The estate therefore had to deal not only with the physical asset but also with the corporate structure through which it was held.
In January 2026, Otutochi Wigwe and Uchechukwu Nwabueze Wigwe began proceedings in the High Court of Justice of the British Virgin Islands seeking limited authority over the shares of Grosvenor Marine Ventures Ltd.
The court subsequently granted a limited Grant of Letters of Administration ad colligenda bona defuncti, allowing them to collect and preserve the relevant assets while broader estate administration was being addressed.
They then asked the BVI court to restore the dissolved company to the Register of Companies so that the yacht could legally be dealt with.
The applicants undertook to settle the applicable restoration fees, government licence fees, penalties and the Registrar's legal costs, while also undertaking to update the company's corporate and beneficial ownership records after restoration.
Why sell a $6.5 million yacht?
The answer is simple: an expensive asset can become a financial burden when nobody needs or uses it.
The court filings described Chitochi as a depreciating asset requiring significant ongoing maintenance and insurance expenditure. Continuing to keep such a yacht can consume substantial resources even when it is not generating income.
For an estate being managed for several beneficiaries, that calculation becomes even more important.
Every dollar spent keeping an expensive yacht afloat is money that could potentially be preserved for the beneficiaries, invested, or used for other purposes.
Reports subsequently indicated that the yacht sale was completed in March 2026, with international yacht brokerage IYC involved in the transaction. However, while the yacht had been listed at $6.5 million, the available court documents do not conclusively establish that $6.5 million was the final transaction price or the exact net amount ultimately received by the estate.
And then comes the bigger lesson
Herbert Wigwe was undoubtedly a very wealthy man. But the story surrounding Chitochi offers a fascinating glimpse into a side of wealth that the public rarely sees.
It is one thing to acquire a multimillion-dollar yacht.
It is another thing for the people left behind to manage, preserve, insure, maintain and eventually dispose of that asset.
That is perhaps one of the most important lessons in this entire story.
We spend our lives chasing possessions.
The car.
The house.
The private jet.
The yacht.
The businesses.
The properties.
The money.
But none of them follows us when we die.
Interestingly, Otutochi has previously spoken about her father telling her: “You don't know who your father is, but you will understand very soon.”
Today, she may understand that statement in a way she could never have imagined when he was alive.
Because sometimes, discovering how wealthy your parents were is not simply about discovering money.
It is about discovering responsibility.
It is about understanding that wealth comes with administration, taxes, corporate structures, legal obligations, maintenance costs, succession issues and difficult decisions.
And ultimately, it is a reminder that nothing in this life lasts forever.
Not the car.
Not the luxury yacht.
Not the private jet.
Not the properties.
Not even the business empire.
What remains is the impact we make, the lives we touch and the memories people carry about us.
At the end of the day, perhaps the greatest wealth is not what we leave behind — but what we leave inside the people whose lives we changed.
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