SourcesFilm 07
The Hunt for Abramovich’s Billions
On YouTube as “How Abramovich Hid His Billions (And Why Nobody Can Take Them)”
Corrections and updates
None so far.
Cold Open: Limassol, November 2006
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Deloitte’s Cyprus office helped Abramovich firms relocate billions archived
An agreement drafted in November 2006 was dated 4 January 2003; a January 2007 email: Amiscan “discloses as little information as possible”; an October 2005 email on whether it “will be more prudent not to disclose”; no evidence Abramovich knew of the plans
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Documents falsified to evade tax on Abramovich’s wealth archived
Draft accounts detailed $672m of luxury property, then “only $75,000 of assets remained”; Electus papers falsely dated to 20 November 2003; reported to be living in Turkey
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Roman Abramovich aides falsified paperwork to disguise assets and dodge tax, records suggest; Deloitte Cyprus “acts in compliance with applicable laws”; his lawyers deny any wrongdoing archived
Moscow, 28 December 1995
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Berezovsky v Abramovich [2012] EWHC 2463 (Comm), Mrs Justice Gloster archived
Auction of 28 December 1995, bid of $100.3 million, Sibneft cash flow “in the region of $1 billion per year”, “no genuine competition”, krysha, Abramovich’s own case that the krysha deal was corrupt
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Executive summary of the Gloster judgment archived
Krysha “literally translated roof”; Berezovsky’s claims dismissed “in their entirety”
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Roman Abramovich & family archived
Governor of Chukotka from 2000 to 2008, “reportedly at Putin’s behest”, spent more than $1 billion there; sold a 73% stake in Sibneft to Gazprom for $13 billion; Israeli citizen after his visa expired in 2018
London, July 2003
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Yukos agrees to acquire a 20% stake in Sibneft for $3 billion in cash archived
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Chelsea under Russian rule: 60 million pounds plus debts of around 80 million, a deal worth 140 million pounds archived
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The year in transfers: a summer spending spree of more than €150m
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Chelsea’s world-record annual loss of £140m for 2004-05 archived
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Abramovich’s secret football payments may have breached Financial Fair Play rules archived
Tens of millions of dollars through offshore companies
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Chelsea fined €10m for “incomplete” financial reporting in the Abramovich era archived
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State monopoly Gazprom takes over Sibneft: 72.7 percent from Millhouse Capital for $13.1 billion archived
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Abramovich buys a Kensington Palace Gardens mansion for £90 million
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His Tier 1 visa expired at the end of April 2018 while the renewal was pending archived
Limassol, 2005–2007
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How Deloitte helped Abramovich hide $10bn archived
Demetris Ioannides and Meritservus; more than 1,000 records backdated, sometimes by five years, for more than 100 companies; over $10bn moved from Electus in Cyprus to its BVI twin; almost $100m extracted on backdated consultancy agreements
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Abramovich evaded millions in VAT with a fake yacht hire scheme archived
€14m owed in a case first heard in 2013, upheld on appeal in 2018
February to June 2022
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Leak reveals Abramovich’s billion-dollar trusts transferred before Russia sanctions
10 trusts reorganised in early February 2022; seven children made beneficiaries of at least $4bn
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Hodge, Abramovich “would escape”; Johnson, “Abramovich is already facing sanctions”; Bryant, “that is not true”
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Abramovich plans to sell Chelsea FC archived
“all net proceeds” to a foundation “for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine”
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Abramovich and Deripaska among 7 oligarchs targeted archived
Full asset freeze; Truss: “The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands”
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General Court press release 195/23: listed by the Council on 15 March 2022, his action dismissed archived
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Abramovich’s second yacht also docks in Turkey: the Eclipse at Marmaris, the Solaris at Bodrum archived
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Jersey freezes assets “in excess of US$7bn” suspected to be connected to Abramovich
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Jersey’s police chief admitted the search was unlawful and copies of the evidence were destroyed archived
The Frozen Money, 2022–2026
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London calling for Shakhtar Donetsk archived
AEK Athens at Stamford Bridge on 14 October; Darijo Srna: “19 or 20 hours”
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The Ukrainian champions will play at Stamford Bridge, unable to use their Donbas Arena since 2014 archived
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Shakhtar chief executive Serhii Palkin: “this money just stays years already with nothing happening” archived
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Fordstam Ltd accounts archived
£2.350bn received; £1.429bn owed to Camberley; “net gain on the sale of £987m”; interest income £113.660m in the year to 30 June 2024 (filed 3 Nov 2025 to 9 Sep 2026)
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Frustration as Abramovich misses “last chance” archived
£150m held by the new owners, £41.6m in fees, the “net gain on sale of £987m”
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Abramovich’s frozen Chelsea cash earns at least £175m, in a Barclays bank account
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Q&A on the frozen Chelsea funds
“Sanctions alone do not provide a lawful basis” to confiscate or compel; his lawyers cite obstacles “outside our client’s control”; no charges in Jersey
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Unilateral declaration on the sale of Chelsea archived
Abramovich must not benefit “in any way”; proceeds “used for humanitarian purposes in Ukraine”
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Abramovich billions may never reach Ukraine: “all victims” appeared to include those from Russia archived
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Reeves and Lammy: “fully prepared to pursue this through the courts if required”
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UK tells Abramovich to give the Chelsea sale cash to Ukraine or face court
90 days to act under the new licence
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UK prepares to sue Abramovich after the 17 March deadline
“Once again, he has failed to make the donation he committed to”
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Ukraine Humanitarian Response Plan 2026: US$2.31 billion required archived
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Zelenskyy says Abramovich came to Kyiv offering to take a message to Putin
The Catch, and After
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UK sanctions Eugene Tenenbaum and David Davidovich
The oligarch “had transferred billions of pounds of assets to the pair”
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UK sanctions Abramovich’s financial fixers: Ioannides crafted structures to hide “over £760 million”
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Cyprus files criminal charges against former directors of Blue Ocean Yacht Management over VAT, recovering more than €25m archived
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Abramovich may owe the UK as much as £1bn in tax and penalties on offshore hedge fund profits archived
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Press release 124/26: the General Court dismisses his action, upholding the restrictive measures archived
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Abramovich takes Jersey to the European human rights court; £5.3bn of his assets frozen
Interviews and clips
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BBC Panorama, Andrew Mitchell KC and Cypriot MP Christos Christofides archived
“Now you see the $672 million in the draft accounts”
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Prem Sikka, professor of accounting: “What we appear to have here is a fiddle factory”
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Outside the High Court, Berezovsky v Abramovich: “the battle of the two Russian oligarchs” archived
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Bill Browder on Sibneft and London: “they’re not independently wealthy, they’re dependently wealthy” archived
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Claudio Ranieri, Chelsea manager in 2003: “everything changed the story of Chelsea” archived
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Karina Shedrofsky, head of research: “This could have given them an unfair advantage” archived
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Andy Verity: “the sanctioned oligarch was hiring out his super yachts to himself” archived
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His statement on handing Chelsea to the foundation’s trustees: “the stewardship and care of Chelsea FC” archived
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Kaveh Solhekol on the sale pledge: “it was a bit of a PR move” archived
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UK sanctions on seven oligarchs: “a freeze on all assets and a travel ban” archived
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Kaveh Solhekol and Defence Secretary John Healey: “legally, the money belongs to him” archived
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Keir Starmer at PMQs, and Sky on the Fordstam accounts: “the clock is ticking” archived
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Kira Rudik, Ukrainian MP: “so many of my neighbors cannot” archived
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Vladimir Milov, former Russian deputy energy minister: “It’s pretty useless, and he should be sanctioned” archived