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 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.
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