Owner of Chelsea
Roman Abramovich was born on the 24th October 1966 to Lithuanian exiles in Saratov, Russia. His parents both died before he was 3, his mother from bacteremia as a result of an abortion and his father on a construction site. He studied and had a stint in the army before going into private business.
His big break came when he befriended tycoon Boris Berezovsky who bought him into the circle of trust of that other Boris, Russian leader Yeltsin. Once in, Abramovich made friends with Yeltsin’s daughter Tatyana before getting close to her father. According to Yeltsin’s former security chief, Abramovich was considered the ‘cashier’ of Yeltsin’s inner circle.
In 1995, Abramovich and Berezovsky acquired the controlling share of the oil company Sibneft. They bought it for a bargain $100m through the controversial loans-for-shares program. While this was only £50m below the stock market value of the shares, it is widely thought that the shares were undervalued and should have been sold for a figure in the billions.
Through his holding company Millhouse Capital, Abramovich and a business partner, Eugene Shvidler acquired sizeable stakes in Aeroflot and several aluminium plants, as well as companies in the automotive, pharmaceutical, food processing and real estate sectors. When Berezovky fled Russia in 2000 to escape fraud charges, Abramovich bought his mentor’s shares in Sibneft off him on the cheap – what a great way to thank the person who bought you through.
Fast forward to 2002. Over the next three years Millhouse Capital will sell off several of its assets including its shares in Sibneft to state energy giant Gazprom for a cool $13billion and its alumininium interests for $2billion.
Alongside this wheeling and dealing, Abramovich found the time to dabble in politics, winning 92% of the vote to become governor of the desolate province Chukotka. Amazing what a cinema and hotel can do for popularity ratings. Not a radical move though, as every other oligarch seems to be governor of some remote area.
While other oligarchs were being brought to task for their colourful business practices, Abramovich seems to have avoided spending any time in Siberia. Possibly because of his close ties with Alexander Voloshin, ex-President Putin’s chief of staff and according to rumours he even enjoys a father-son relationship with Putin himself.
The Russian tax police investigation into Sibneft’s alleged non-payment of $450m in taxes was closed without charge. In 2004, Swiss investigators abandoned an investigation into the alleged fraud involving a $4.8billion loan from the IMF to Russia, in which Abramovich was a key subject.
According to an insider, Sergei Stepashin, head of the Russian parliament’s Accounting Chamber, Abramovich used a tax loophole to avoid paying Sibneft’s taxes conveniently leaving a large pile of cash to buy a certain west London football club.
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