Where is Roman Abramovich now? What former Chelsea owner has done since leaving UK ...Middle East

Former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has found himself back under the spotlight over his tax dealings.

The Russian oligarch has been accused of dodging paying tax with a superyachts-for-hire scheme.

An investigation by the BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, entitled Cyprus Confidential, has revealed what it claims is an elaborate arrangement in which the 58-year-old’s fleet of superyachts appeared to be part of a commercial leasing operation to swerve paying VAT.

Abramovich has denied any wrongdoing.

Lawyers representing the billionaire businessman told the BBC he denied “any allegation that he had any knowledge” or was “personally responsible” or liable for “any alleged deception of any government authority” to evade tax.

We take a look at the detail.

Roman Abramovich has sold his home in the Kensington area of London in 2022 (Photo: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg/Getty)

The billionaire businessman had homes in the UK during his tenure as owner of Chelsea FC.

But in 2022 he was sanctioned by the UK and forced to sell the Stamford Bridge club, which led to him leaving London and setting up home elsewhere.

Since then he is reported to have divided his time between Russia, Turkey and Israel.

He was renting a gated estate in Istanbul, Turkey, according to the head of the Istanbul Real Estate Brokers Club, from late 2022.

CNN Turkey then revealed the magnate had purchased a villa in the Vanikoy district of Istanbul.

In September last year, TurkiyeToday.com reported demolition had begun on a property owned by Abramovich.

The villa, in the Bosphorus View Region of Uskudar’s Vanikoy locality, was said to have had building work without proper authorisation.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intervened in the row over the construction accusing the opposition-led city authorities of “handing over Istanbul’s most valuable environmental treasures to wealthy elites”.

Abramovich has neither confirmed his ownership of the property nor publicly commented on the row.

Since 2018, the Russian-born businessman has had Israeli citizenship. And in 2020, he was reported by The Times of Israel to have bought a £50m mansion in the city of Herzliya in Israel.

It is made up of two buildings, covering 2.35 acres, reportedly including a tennis court and a swimming pool on a hydraulic platform which can be converted into a guest area for events.

This is understood to be the third property he had purchased in Israel, after buying a £24m home in the Neve Tzedek neighbourhood of Tel Aviv and a £45m seafront office block in the city.

Abramovich is also alleged to spend some of his time in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

What is Roman Abramovich accused of?

Abramovich is understood to own five superyachts, which he bought in the 2000s: Eclipse, Pelorus, Ecstasea, Luna and Le Grande Bleu.

According to an investigation by the BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, each of these vessels was leased to a company in Cyprus called Blue Ocean Yacht Management.

The firm then chartered them to a group of companies, which it is claimed were also owned by Abramovich.

This global network of companies were owned by a series of trusts of which Abramovich was the beneficiary.

These companies were said to have been used to hire the yachts out to Abramovich himself or other companies he controlled.

The BBC says the scheme was “laid bare in over 400,000 files and 72,000 emails leaked from a Cypriot corporate service provider, MeritServus”.

Its purpose, according to those investigating, was to help Abramovich avoid paying huge tax bills on the yachts’ running costs.

The documents appear to show how the five yachts were leased to Blue Ocean Yacht Management, which chartered them on to apparently independent companies in the British Virgin Islands.

But these were, it seems, controlled by Abramovich.

Among the leaked documents was a 2005 memorandum from Jonathan Holloway, then a director of Blue Ocean, detailing “Operating Structure” for the management of Abramovich’s fleet.

It is reported to have stated: “We want to avoid paying VAT on the purchase price of the yachts and where possible to avoid paying VAT on goods and services provided to the yachts.

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“Our structure must as clearly as possible separate the different parties so that an investigator checking on our operation would see it as a legitimate structure.”

The companies which leased the yachts needed to have separate shareholders, directors or registered addresses to avoid any “common link” with Abramovich.

Under the veil of a commercial operation, the files suggest Abramovich managed to avoid paying tax bills on the yachts’ running costs in EU waters and had them for his personal use.

Tax expert Rita de la Feria told the BBC she had seen in the yacht scheme “indications” they “may be misrepresenting information”.

“If that is the case, then we are now in the realm of evasion,” she added.

Holloway told the BBC he joined Blue Ocean 20 years ago and was there for “a relatively short period of time”.

He said he “managed literally hundreds of vessels from many different locations around the world” and “I can’t be expected to remember the individual circumstances of every vessel I have ever managed,” he said, adding he “used structures others in the industry were using”.

Lawyers for Abramovich said he “always obtained independent expert professional tax and legal advice” and “acted in accordance” with it.

And just as he sought professional legal and tax advice and acted on it, he expects that “similar advice was sought at the relevant times by those with responsibility for the day-to-day running” of the companies involved in the scheme.

Blue Ocean was officially dissolved in 2024.

Why did Roman Abramovich have to sell Chelsea?

Abramovich became the owner of Chelsea FC in June 2003, after purchasing companies which control the club.

He took over from the former owner Ken Bates.

During his stewardship of the club, it won 18 major trophies: the Uefa Champions League twice, the Uefa Europa League twice, the Uefa Supercup twice, the Fifa Club World Cup, the Premier League five times and the FA Cup five times.

However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 the British government froze Abramovich’s assets in the UK on 10 March as a result of his “close ties” to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.

The club was allowed to continue operating in football-related activities but not generate revenue.

But two days later on 12 March, the Premier League disqualified Abramovich as a director of Chelsea and he was forced to sell the club.

By May 2022, Chelsea had been sold to group led by American businessman Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in a deal estimated to be worth £4.25bn.

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