January 30 – Former Chelsea supremo Roman Abramovich allegedly dodged paying millions in taxes to British authorities through an elaborate fictitious superyacht hiring scheme.
According to a joint investigation by the BBC, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and others, the Russian oligarch avoided paying by effectively renting out his superyachts to himself.
Leaked files reveal Abramovich allegedly used a network of offshore companies to evade paying VAT on the purchase and maintenance of five luxury vessels registered as commercial vehicles and worth roughly $1.2 billion.
Documents reviewed in the investigation showed that the superyachts were owned by companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, all of them owned by a Cyprus-based trust that belonged to Abramovich.
Under the scheme, these companies would then rent the vessels long-term to another Abramovich-owned outlet called Blue Ocean Yacht Management which would, in turn, lease the boats for cruises to a set of companies — also owned by Abramovich.
It is alleged that the Blue Ocean set-up allowed Abramovich to claim a tax exemption for a maritime business.
Abramovich – who now reportedly divides his time between Istanbul, Tel Aviv and the Russian resort of Sochi – denies having any knowledge of, or being personally responsible for, any unpaid tax.
The oligarch’s lawyers said he “always obtained independent expert professional tax and legal advice” and “acted in accordance with that advice”.
But a British Member of Parliament, Joe Powell, who leads a Parliamentary group on fair taxation, called on the country’s HM Revenue and Customs to “urgently” investigate the case to recover what could be “very significant amounts of money that could be invested in public services”.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich was forced to sell his stake in Chelsea and was banned from entering the UK in 2022 due to his connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The £2.5bn raised from the proceeds was supposed to be donated to charities supporting victims of the war in Ukraine. However, the money still sits in a frozen bank account, reportedly due to disagreement over how it should be spent.
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