Russian authorities accused Abramovich of ‘Organized crime’

The BBC said Monday it had uncovered a document alleging that Russian authorities accused oligarch Roman Abramovich of fraud “by an organized criminal group” in his 1995 deal to buy the Sibneft oil company.

Israeli-Russian national Abramovich, the billionaire owner of the Chelsea soccer team, is one of several Putin-linked oligarchs sanctioned in recent days due to his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Lawyers for the oligarch have denied to the British broadcaster that there was any truth to the allegations that he has amassed his very substantial wealth through criminality.

The BBC said it received a document that a source claimed was copied from Russian law enforcement files on Abramovich, which said that authorities wanted to charge the businessman with fraud.

The outlet said it was unable to verify the document but that it tallied with other information it had received on the matter.

“The Dept. of Economic Crimes investigators came to the conclusion that if Abramovich could be brought to trial he would have faced accusations of fraud… by an organized criminal group,” the document was said to read.

Abramovich paid some $250 million for Sibneft, before selling it back to the Russian government for $13 billion a decade later.

According to the BBC, the document said that the Russian government was cheated out of $2.7bn in the Sibneft deal, a claim that was reportedly supported by a Russian parliamentary investigation.

Russia’s former chief prosecutor Yuri Skuratov, who investigated the deal at the time and was forced to step down after the emergence of a sex tape that he said was part of a ploy to discredit him, told the BBC that while he was unaware of the specific document, he could confirm many of the details.

“Basically, it was a fraudulent scheme, where those who took part in the privatization formed one criminal group that allowed Abramovich and [Boris] Berezovsky to trick the government and not pay the money that this company was really worth,” Skuratov said.

Abramovich previously admitted to a London court in 2012 that he made payments in connection with the deal when he was sued by former business partner Boris Berezovsky, who alleged that Abramovich had betrayed and intimidated him into selling his oil stakes in Sibneft vastly beneath their true value, and sold his gas shares without his consent.

(Berezovsky lost the case and died in 2013. A 2015 Buzzfeed investigation that same year said the businessman’s death was one of 14 on British soil that may have been connected to Russian authorities. An inquest into Berezovsky’s death recorded an open verdict.)

The document also suggests Abramovich may have been under the protection of Russia’s then-president Boris Yeltsin.

The document also alleged wrongdoing in another rigged auction two years later for the Russian oil company Slavneft.

The document allegedly said that a Chinese rival bid almost twice as much as Abramovich and his partners.

“Many powerful people — from the Kremlin to the Russian parliament — would have stood to lose out if the Chinese won the auction,” the BBC said.

According to the document, a member of the Chinese delegation was kidnapped upon arriving in Moscow for the auction, meaning that CNPC, the Chinese company, had to withdraw its bid.

The document said the individual was released when the Chinese company announced it would no longer participate in the auction.

There were no allegations that Abramovich was connected to the kidnapping, with the BBC noting that many groups wanted the Chinese out of the picture.

Lawyers for the oligarch told the BBC that the kidnapping claim was “entirely unsubstantiated” and that Abramovich has “no knowledge of such incident.”

The BBC said the kidnapping story was confirmed by sources who had no knowledge of the document.

“Skuratov was preparing a criminal case for the confiscation of Sibneft on the basis of the investigation of its privatization. The investigation was stopped by President Yeltsin… Skuratov was dismissed from his office,” the document read.

Vladimir Milov, Russia’s deputy energy minister ahead of the Slavneft auction, told the BBC that while he knew nothing of the kidnapping, “senior political figures” had already decided that Abramovich’s partnership would be the one with the winning bid.

“I said, look, the Chinese want to come in and they want to pay a much bigger price. They say it doesn’t matter, shut up, none of your business. It’s already decided. Slavneft goes to Abramovich, the price is agreed. The Chinese will be dragged out somehow,” Milov said.

The allegations were aired hours after Abramovich was spotted at Ben Gurion Airport as his plane took off and landed in Moscow with a brief stop in Turkey.

Last week, the UK hit Abramovich with an assets freeze and travel ban as part of new government sanctions targeting seven Russian oligarchs. The sanctions block his ability to sell Chelsea.

The UK government has estimated Abramovich’s net worth at £9.4 billion (11.1 billion euros, $12.2 billion). He also controversially holds a Portuguese passport.

Abramovich took on Israeli citizenship in 2018 after the UK refused to renew his visa there in 2018, amid a diplomatic spat between London and Moscow. He continued to own the English soccer club Chelsea, but tried to sell the team late last month once it became clear he would likely be targeted by sanctions.