Russian Billionaire Abramovich Under Probe Over Suspected Money Laundering

Jersey authorities are investigating Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in connection with suspected money laundering, according to court records that show hundreds of millions of dollars moving through Swiss bank accounts.

Details of the ongoing investigation are revealed in a series of Swiss court judgments issued in May, obtained by OCCRP, which also show that Jersey authorities suspect companies “under [his] control” violated economic sanctions. The legal rulings gave Swiss authorities permission to provide banking information to Jersey.

Separately, officials in Cyprus told reporters they passed along information about companies linked to the probe upon request from Jersey authorities.

Kobre & Kim, a law firm representing Abramovich, said its client had not been charged with any crime in Jersey and “denies any allegations of wrongdoing.” The firm declined to answer questions about the contents of the Swiss judgments.

“Our client was not a party to those proceedings and no submissions were made on his behalf,” the firm told OCCRP. “For that reason, he is not in a position to respond.”

Details of Jersey’s investigation, outlined in the Swiss judgments, were first reported by the publication Gotham City in June.

The Swiss judgments discuss a businessman referred to only as “G,” but they include background information, including business dealings, that enabled reporters to conclusively identify Abramovich.

The details coincide with Abramovich’s well-publicized $13 billion sale of the Russian oil company, Sibneft, in 2005. The proceeds were paid into accounts of companies controlled by two Jersey-based entities, according to the Swiss judgments.

Prosecutors in Jersey suspect that G made “corruption payments” in the 1990s to maintain control over a Russian company, according to recent Swiss court judgments. Proceeds of the subsequent $13 billion sale of that company were deposited in the bank accounts of companies linked to him, according to the judgments.

Separately, an English High Court judge ruled in 2012 that Abramovich made “substantial cash payments” in the 1990s to obtain indispensable political patronage and influence, a type of support known as “krysha” (or “roof”), allowing him to maintain control of Sibneft.

Lawyers for Abramovich told OCCRP that the English judgment “makes no finding that our client broke any law in respect of his business dealings and there was no suggestion in our client’s defence that his acquisition of the relevant entity was achieved through corruption. Any suggestion to the contrary is misleading, false and defamatory.”

In a request for assistance to Swiss authorities, Jersey prosecutors stated they suspect 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.

Along with jurisdictions including the U.K. and European Union, Jersey sanctioned Abramovich for his relationship with the Kremlin following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Jersey sets its own laws, but depends on the U.K. for defense and matters of foreign affairs.

Jersey’s attorney general’s office said it was “not able to comment on live investigations.” The Swiss attorney general’s office confirmed it had executed a request for mutual legal assistance from Jersey, but declined to provide further information.

The Swiss judgments show how federal prosecutors in 2023 and 2024 ordered a Swiss bank to hand over records relating to three companies registered in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and Jersey. Each company contested the order in its case, but in May a Swiss criminal court dismissed their appeals.

Subsequent appeals by the three companies to Switzerland’s Supreme Court were ruled inadmissible.

The law firm MME, which represents the three unnamed companies that contested the release of bank account information, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Swiss judgments referenced more than 20 firms and five trusts, including several registered in Cyprus.

The Cypriot police press office confirmed that information was provided to Jersey authorities, but added: “No further information can be disclosed at this time since the investigation is ongoing.”

A law enforcement official in Cyprus, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, described the requests by Jersey as “extensive.”

“We provided a lot of material,” the official told CIReN, OCCRP’s Cypriot member center.

Jersey received information about “opening bank accounts, records of companies from the registrar, and records for trusts from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission,” the official said.