the fortune of Roman Abramovich, until recently owner of Chelsea, could be based on corrupt businesses. That’s how he says today BBCwho claims that the purchase of his oil company, Sibneft, was made in a rigged sub-class in 1995. At the time he paid 250 million dollars (about 230 million euros) and he sold it to the Russian government, ten years later, for 13,000 million.
His lawyers, meanwhile, assure that there is no basis to allege that the tycoon amassed substantial wealth through criminal activities. The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine has caused all of his assets to be frozen, in addition to being forced to abandon his duties at Chelsea.
Abramovich has already admitted in a UK court that made corrupt payments to help get the oil deal off the ground. His former business partner Boris Berezovsky sued him in 2012. However, the tycoon won the case and described how the auction was rigged in his favor, in which gave Berezovsky 10 million to pay a Kremlin official.
Roman Abramovich has been included in the list of sanctions of the European Union, within the framework of actions coordinated with the G-7 and which was announced by Brussels last week. The reason is none other than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its alleged links to Vladimir Putin.
Some sanctions that will cause the freezing of their assets and the prohibition of entering the EU. These are added to those imposed by the United Kingdom, which also announced the freezing of its assets, and the both travel ban to the UK as well as to carry out financial and commercial transactions with British companies and individuals. Abramovich is no longer the owner of Chelsea and therefore will not be able to participate in the sale of the club to another owner.
In this way, the London club is looking for a buyer, among whom would be the Saudi Media Group, which has launched an offer of 3.2 billion euros. Given the sanctions against Abramovich, the club cannot make transfers or sell players, nor renew their footballers’ contracts. Also, you may not sell match tickets.
On the other hand, these sanctions come to Abramovich after the Russian billionaire has taken several of his properties to other territories that have not been affected by the sanctions applied to Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine. It happened with one of his main properties, the superyacht My Solaris, moored in the Port of Barcelona until the decree of sanctions against Russia.
Like Abramovich, many Russian tycoons have moved their luxury property and bank accounts to countries like Montenegrinbecause it is a territory that does not have an extradition treaty signed with the United Statesand that, as is the case with the Maldives, are excluded from the sanctions applied by the West to the Russian economy.
Siege on the Russian economy
The UK also froze the financial assets of six other Russian oligarchs worth €18 billion. The Sanctions are added to the first package filed by the European Union, which also affected the main financial entities of the country, and the exports and imports of the Russian Government. In addition, the Russian country has also been affected by two other factors that have weighed down its economy.
First, the disconnection of Russia from the SWIFT systemand later, the exodus of multinationals from the countrysome of the most important such as Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Warner Bros, Netflix, Paramount, or the companies of the so-called ‘Big Four’, in which the consultants PwC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte are found. Others were also applied, such as the veto on the import of Russian gas and oil.
Presence of your private jet in Israel
Last night, the Gulfstream private jet with registration number LX-RAY and belonging to the Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, landed at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv (Israel), hours before it was due to head to the Turkish city of Istanbul, according to the data recorded by the web ‘flightradar24‘, specializing in tracking international flights.
The plane landed in the Israeli capital at 9:18 p.m. on Sunday from Moscow, according to this website. However the Israeli media ‘globes‘, he explained that Abramovich’s own presence in Israel was not confirmed. The Russian has Israeli nationality, and has real estate assets and investments in this country, according to the aforementioned media. However, he left the airport runways after a few hours.
Before the arrival of his private plane, on a visit to Slovakia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yair Lapidwarned that Israel will not be a refuge for those tycoons and big Russian businessmen who are sanctioned by the United States or Europe. “Israel it will not be a way to circumvent the sanctions imposed on Russia“, he defended.