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September 12, 2025
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The origins of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s wealth are under investigation by authorities in the island of Jersey, where he is suspected of money laundering.

The probe, which has forced famously secretive Swiss banks to hand over information that revealed details of the case, is also examining possible sanctions violations by companies linked to the billionaire.

Here’s the latest in global crime and corruption:

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** New Investigations
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** Jersey Probes Abramovich Over Suspected Money Laundering
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On Sunday, we reported that authorities in the English Channel island of Jersey are investigating Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich over suspected money laundering, and looking into whether companies linked to him violated economic sanctions.

Today OCCRP Senior Investigative Journalist Tom Stocks ([link removed]) joins us to explain the case’s significance.

“This story is important because it shows authorities are looking seriously, for the first time, at the origins of the wealth of a businessman considered by European and North American governments to be close to the Kremlin,” said Stocks.

The details of the ongoing investigation were revealed in a series of Swiss court judgments obtained by OCCRP that gave authorities in Switzerland permission to provide banking information to Jersey.

The judgments say that Jersey prosecutors suspect a businessman referred to as “G” — which reporters confirmed to be Abramovich — made "corruption payments" in the 1990s to maintain control of a Russian company, and later sold that company and paid the proceeds into Swiss bank accounts held by Jersey companies.

The details coincide with Abramovich’s 2005 sale of the Russian oil company Sibneft for $13 billion — a fortune that propelled him into the echelons of the super-wealthy. In the years since, he has gone on to invest in Chelsea Football Club and hedge funds, amass an art collection worth nearly $1 billion, and buy up luxury real estate and superyachts.

For Stocks, the probe “represents a shift in political climate and changing attitudes toward fortunes that were made in the early days of post-Soviet Russia. This would have been unthinkable a few years ago, but authorities now are showing they're willing to tackle what they see as suspicious sources of wealth.”

Jersey authorities have also been examining more recent transactions. In a request for assistance to Swiss authorities, Jersey prosecutors said they suspected that “companies indirectly under G's control” violated Jersey law by carrying out transactions and providing financial services after he was sanctioned there on March 10, 2022.

Jersey is a hugely significant jurisdiction for Abramovich, Stocks said.

“After Abramovich was sanctioned by Jersey in 2022, it emerged that assets worth around $7 billion had been frozen there, and as far as we know, they remain frozen,” he said. “This represents a significant portion of his global fortune.”

Abramovich’s lawyers deny any allegations of wrongdoing. He hasn't been charged with any crime in Jersey and there are no criminal proceedings.

Read the full story → ([link removed])


** The Swiss Connection
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The investigation also provides a rare insight into the notoriously secretive Swiss banking sector, where clients’ identities are heavily guarded. Under the country’s draconian banking secrecy law ([link removed]) , revealing that someone holds an account at a Swiss bank can lead to up to five years in prison.

In the Abramovich case, the companies which held the Swiss accounts contested the decision to pass the requested information to Jersey, Stocks said, but Swiss courts ultimately dismissed their appeals.

Nevertheless, “customers of Swiss banks can continue to rely on Switzerland for a degree of secrecy that doesn't exist in many other countries,” he added.
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** More OCCRP Reporting
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** 'Stained With Blood': Port Brings Violence to Fishing Town
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A state-of-the-art port in Ecuador has brought global commerce — and cocaine and cartel violence — to the once-placid shores of the fishing town of Posorja.

With a $1.2 billion budget, the deepwater port built along Posorja’s pacific coastline in 2019 marked one of the largest foreign investments in Ecuador’s history.

By certain measures, it has already been a success: Last year, Posorja became Ecuador’s busiest port in terms of trade volume.

Yet this explosion of commerce has also attracted cocaine smugglers looking to hide their drugs alongside legal goods. Drug seizure data shows that Posorja has already emerged as one of Ecuador’s leading launchpads for cocaine headed to Europe.

As the quantity of cocaine moving through the rural town has increased, so has the violence: Roadside killings are now a common occurrence, with homicides having increased 13-fold since the year after the port opened, compared to the five years prior.

“It used to be a place of peace, but now two or three people are killed per week, and shops close earlier,” a local resident who lives near the rural town told OCCRP.


** U.S. Senator Pushing For Release of Epstein Financial Records
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The U.S. Treasury Department holds records about financial transactions by Jeffrey Epstein, but has so far refused to hand them to Congressional investigators.

Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden unveiled draft legislation this week intended to force the Treasury Department to release financial documents containing names of women and girls potentially trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender.

The records involve more than $1.5 billion in wire transfers.

"They also reveal potential violations of federal anti-money laundering laws by J.P. Morgan and other banks — compliance failures that helped Epstein continue abusing and trafficking women and girls many years after law enforcement was first alerted to his activities," Wyden’s office said in a statement.

Read the full story → ([link removed])


** OCCRP Q&A
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** Corruption, Protest and Government Collapse in Nepal
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As Nepal’s military negotiates with protesters, journalist Rajneesh Bhandari tells OCCRP about the corrosive corruption that enraged Gen Z.

Rajneesh Bhandari, chief editor of the Nepal Investigative Multimedia Journalism Network, spoke with OCCRP from Kathmandu, where anti-corruption protests this week forced Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his cabinet to resign.

Read the Q&A → ([link removed])

📞 We want to hear from you!

We’d love to know why you read OCCRP and how you use our reporting. Your feedback helps us improve. Schedule a 15-minute call with us ([link removed]) .


** News Briefs
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* Illegally imported meat and dairy products are being sold in the United Kingdom in “alarming amounts,” a parliamentary committee warned this week ([link removed]) , noting that lax enforcement could give rise to a major disease outbreak.
* China’s top anti-corruption watchdog has launched an investigation ([link removed]) into banking sector veteran and former head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission Yi Huiman.
* Ukrainian fugitive hacker Volodymyr Tymoshchuk was placed on the European Union’s Most Wanted list ([link removed]) this week. He has been linked to ransomware and malware attacks, including the 2019 attack on Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro, which brought production to a halt and disrupted global supply chains, costing tens of millions of dollars.
* A U.S. federal court has sentenced the owner and operator ([link removed]) of a pornography website to 27 years in prison over his role in a sex trafficking scheme that saw hundreds of young women abused, exploited and raped.

* Tensions escalated in Tbilisi this week, with several demonstrators and journalists injured ([link removed]) on Monday evening in attacks by supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party. This comes as the country prepares for local elections in early October.

* Former Azerbaijani state oil firm executive Ramin Isayev was sentenced to 14 years in jail ([link removed]) earlier this week for money laundering, fraud, and embezzlement of $31.76 million during his time as general director of SOCAR AQS, a joint venture that operates drilling rigs in the Caspian Sea.
* The U.S. has sanctioned 19 individuals and companies ([link removed]) for their part in operating cyber scam centers run on slave labor, which have bilked people around the world out of billions. Among others, the new sanctions apply to Chinese mafia figures and a Myanmar junta-backed militia.


** Announcements
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In their recent piece “It Takes a Network of Journalists to Fight a System of Corruption ([link removed]) ,” OCCRP Publisher Drew Sullivan and Senior Editor Ilya Lozovsky describe how fighting global crime and corruption requires empowering all investigative journalists to shine a light on wrongdoing, no matter where it takes place.
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