Ashley Lutz
FORTUNE
Thu, February 24, 2022
Russia's invasion of Ukraine gives new ammunition to the argument that billionaire Roman Abramovich should be stripped of his ownership of Chelsea Football Club, one of the biggest and most successful soccer clubs in Europe.
The notoriously secretive Abramovich, who made his billions in oil and is reportedly close to Vladimir Putin, became the London club's outright owner in 2003. Since his investment, Chelsea has won 18 major trophies, including two Champions League titles, the most prestigious pan-European competition.
Over that nearly 20-year span, Abramovich has become a celebrity in the English media, and something of a stand-in for the many ultrawealthy Russians who have moved to England in general and London in particular. Earlier this month, The Times reported that £1.5 billion worth of UK property had been purchased by Russians with links to the Kremlin, nearly £430 million of which was in Westminster alone. Many critics have nicknamed the capital "Londongrad."
The escalating conflict in Ukraine has intensified scrutiny around Abramovich's wealth and his close relationship to Putin. Last month, The Athletic reported that Chelsea owes Abramovich at least $2 billion right now; Abramovich's net worth is around $15 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Labour MP Chris Bryant is leading the charge within Parliament to kick Abramovich out of his west London perch atop Chelsea. On Thursday, he said during Business Questions at the House of Commons that he had access to documents from 2019 linking Abramovich to "malign activity."
In 2021, Abramovich sued the author Catherine Belton for reporting in her book "Putin's People" that Abramovich had acted "covertly at his [Putin's] direction" in multiple business deals, including his acquisition of Chelsea. That lawsuit ultimately settled.
Chris Bryant has urged Boris Johnson's government to seize Abramovich's UK assets, including Chelsea and his London-based investment company Millhouse LLC, the BBC reports.
"Surely Mr Abramovich should no longer be able to own a football club in this country? Surely we should be looking at seizing some of his assets ... and making sure that other people who have had tier 1 visas like this are not engaged in malign activity in the UK," Bryant said, according to The Guardian.
Bryant told MPs that the Home Office document about Abramovich from 2019 suggests the oligarch shouldn't be allowed to live in the UK. His 15-bedroom mansion, just behind Kensington Palace, and other UK properties have been estimated to be worth more than $250 million.
"As part of HMG's [Her Majesty's Government] Russia strategy aimed at targeting illicit finance and malign activity, Abramovich remains of interest to HMG due to his links to the Russian state and his public association with corrupt activity and practices. An example of this is Abramovich admitting in court proceedings that he paid for political influence," the document reads.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Abramovich was "already facing sanctions," but he later walked that back, with his spokesperson saying he had "misspoke." Abramovich was not part of the several series of sanctions announced by Johnson, the largest ever levied by the UK.
The UK has already announced sanctions targeting Russian banks and billionaires.
Abramovich's oil wealth has been under scrutiny for years, and in 2018, he withdrew his application for a UK investor visa amid mounting criticism. He's been using an Israeli passport to get into the country, and even lived a nomadic existence on his fleet of yachts for a while when he was denied entry to the UK.
After he was denied entry in 2018, Abramovich abandoned plans to build a new $1 billion stadium for Chelsea.
The new sanctions and calls to action against Russian money are just the beginning of a likely shake-up in Western Europe stemming from the war.
Political pressure had separately been building for Europe's top soccer body, the UEFA, to strip Russia of hosting the Champions League final in May, and to cut off its massive sponsorship deal with Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy giant, with the EU Parliament one of the voices calling for action. After Thursday's invasion, The Athletic reported that UEFA will move the Champions League Final away from St. Petersburg's Gazprom Arena.
[This report has been updated with additional information on Chris Bryant's remarks about Abramovich, Boris Johnson's statement about potential sanctions, and the fate of the Champions League Final in St. Petersburg.]
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Thu, February 24, 2022
Russia's invasion of Ukraine gives new ammunition to the argument that billionaire Roman Abramovich should be stripped of his ownership of Chelsea Football Club, one of the biggest and most successful soccer clubs in Europe.
The notoriously secretive Abramovich, who made his billions in oil and is reportedly close to Vladimir Putin, became the London club's outright owner in 2003. Since his investment, Chelsea has won 18 major trophies, including two Champions League titles, the most prestigious pan-European competition.
Over that nearly 20-year span, Abramovich has become a celebrity in the English media, and something of a stand-in for the many ultrawealthy Russians who have moved to England in general and London in particular. Earlier this month, The Times reported that £1.5 billion worth of UK property had been purchased by Russians with links to the Kremlin, nearly £430 million of which was in Westminster alone. Many critics have nicknamed the capital "Londongrad."
The escalating conflict in Ukraine has intensified scrutiny around Abramovich's wealth and his close relationship to Putin. Last month, The Athletic reported that Chelsea owes Abramovich at least $2 billion right now; Abramovich's net worth is around $15 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Labour MP Chris Bryant is leading the charge within Parliament to kick Abramovich out of his west London perch atop Chelsea. On Thursday, he said during Business Questions at the House of Commons that he had access to documents from 2019 linking Abramovich to "malign activity."
In 2021, Abramovich sued the author Catherine Belton for reporting in her book "Putin's People" that Abramovich had acted "covertly at his [Putin's] direction" in multiple business deals, including his acquisition of Chelsea. That lawsuit ultimately settled.
Chris Bryant has urged Boris Johnson's government to seize Abramovich's UK assets, including Chelsea and his London-based investment company Millhouse LLC, the BBC reports.
"Surely Mr Abramovich should no longer be able to own a football club in this country? Surely we should be looking at seizing some of his assets ... and making sure that other people who have had tier 1 visas like this are not engaged in malign activity in the UK," Bryant said, according to The Guardian.
Bryant told MPs that the Home Office document about Abramovich from 2019 suggests the oligarch shouldn't be allowed to live in the UK. His 15-bedroom mansion, just behind Kensington Palace, and other UK properties have been estimated to be worth more than $250 million.
"As part of HMG's [Her Majesty's Government] Russia strategy aimed at targeting illicit finance and malign activity, Abramovich remains of interest to HMG due to his links to the Russian state and his public association with corrupt activity and practices. An example of this is Abramovich admitting in court proceedings that he paid for political influence," the document reads.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Abramovich was "already facing sanctions," but he later walked that back, with his spokesperson saying he had "misspoke." Abramovich was not part of the several series of sanctions announced by Johnson, the largest ever levied by the UK.
The UK has already announced sanctions targeting Russian banks and billionaires.
Abramovich's oil wealth has been under scrutiny for years, and in 2018, he withdrew his application for a UK investor visa amid mounting criticism. He's been using an Israeli passport to get into the country, and even lived a nomadic existence on his fleet of yachts for a while when he was denied entry to the UK.
After he was denied entry in 2018, Abramovich abandoned plans to build a new $1 billion stadium for Chelsea.
The new sanctions and calls to action against Russian money are just the beginning of a likely shake-up in Western Europe stemming from the war.
Political pressure had separately been building for Europe's top soccer body, the UEFA, to strip Russia of hosting the Champions League final in May, and to cut off its massive sponsorship deal with Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy giant, with the EU Parliament one of the voices calling for action. After Thursday's invasion, The Athletic reported that UEFA will move the Champions League Final away from St. Petersburg's Gazprom Arena.
[This report has been updated with additional information on Chris Bryant's remarks about Abramovich, Boris Johnson's statement about potential sanctions, and the fate of the Champions League Final in St. Petersburg.]
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Wealthy Russians who parked money in Florida's 'Little Moscow' worry they'll be blacklisted from buying luxury real estate
Hillary Hoffower
Fri, February 25, 2022
Sunny Isles, Florida.Meinzahn/Getty Images
Sunny Isles, Florida, is known as "Little Moscow" because of the many Russian elites who live there.
They're worried sanctions could prevent them from buying real estate.
Experts say it's likely they won't be severely affected.
Sunny Isles, Florida, has long been an escape for Russia's wealthy and elite, who have purchased so much luxury property in the area that it's become known as "Little Moscow" and "Moscow by the Sea."
"They love to be here, and they like to spend their money and enjoy their life," Lana Bell, a Russian real-estate agent, told the News Nation correspondent Brian Entin on Monday.
President Joe Biden issued sanctions this week that target Russia's elite and their families and restrict the Kremlin's ability to access Western financial institutions. Though people in Little Moscow have been worried the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict will threaten their lifestyle and blacklist them from buying American real estate, Entin reported, Bell said it hadn't been a problem. Experts told the Miami Herald's Michael Wilner the sanctions in place were unlikely to have a strong effect in South Florida. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Thursday showed the tensions were far from over.
"We are extending the reach of US sanctions to prevent the elites close to Putin from using their kids to hide assets, evade costs, and squander the resources of the Russian people," a National Security Council official told the Miami Herald. "This is a new approach."
Anders Åslund, a Swedish economist and the author of "Russia's Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy," doesn't think this will affect the Russian rich in the greater Miami region that Little Moscow is in. He told Wilner that the Miami Russians weren't powerful enough to feel the sanction burn.
"These are comfortable people, rather than the top people," he said.
Florida's Russian rich
In Sunny Isles, condos can cost as much as $35 million. The most expensive home in the area listed on Sotheby's is $13.9 million. It's an area where the Trump brand is dominant, which The Washington Post reported was part of the appeal among Russian investors looking to move their money in the post-Soviet economy.
Jose Lima, a salesperson for the company that developed the region's Trump towers, told The Post in 2016 that Russian speakers bought about one-third of the 500 units he sold.
But Russian influence stretches beyond Sunny Isles. From Hollywood to Fisher Island, Russians have spent years snapping up properties along Florida's southeastern coast. Experts told Wilner that illicit financing had helped fuel the trend, though it's not all related to dirty money. They estimated that Russia's elite had more than $1 trillion in offshore accounts, which they said was disproportionally held in South Florida property.
So far, Russia's richest billionaires have been affected by the rising conflict the most. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the richest 22 of them lost $39 billion in one day.
While many of the Little Moscow Russians didn't want to be identified when talking to News Nation's Entin, they did tell him off camera that they supported Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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