Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich investigated for unpaid taxes

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, former owner of London soccer club Chelsea, allegedly evaded hundreds of millions of pounds in UK taxes on investments with a complex international structure, an inquiry by the 'BBC', 'The Guardian' and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (OPI) revealed Wednesday.

Between the late 1990s and early 2022, the oligarch owned as much as $6 billion (5.776 billion euros) in a global network of hundreds of hedge funds, amounting to “almost half of his estimated fortune,” according to the investigation based on leaked court documents and business plans.

These generated “huge profits,” which were then used to finance other parts of his business empire, including Chelsea, the team he owned between 2003 and 2022, channeled through a system that went through Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven.

The investigation reveals that while the investments were made by companies in these countries, the decisions were made over nearly two decades by a close associate of the UK-based oligarch.

Abramovich's companies could thus owe more than £500 million (€596 million) in taxes, the analysis of the documents suggests, although if interest and penalties are added, the debt would rise to £1 billion (€1,119 million).

The total estimated profit of this oligarch's business structure between 2004 and 2018 was more than 3 billion pounds (3.578 billion euros), according to the investigators.

The investments, coming from the sale of the Gubkin oil company to the giant Gazprom, were made by him through large asset managers, such as the American BlackRock or the British group Brevan Howard, they assured.

The documents, which allegedly include a tax scheme acknowledging tax evasion, are part of the 'Cyprus Confidential' investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a conglomerate of 68 journalists from around the world who uncovered, among others, the so-called Panama Papers.

This new investigation “exposes the growing financial industry that has propelled (Vladimir) Putin's regime as it dominates its neighbors and undermines the West,” the authors said.

A representative of Abramovich told the 'BBC' that he had “obtained independent professional tax and legal advice and acted on that advice” and denied knowledge “of any illegal tax avoidance or evasion scheme”.