Roman Abramovich’s Fleet of Five $1 Billion Yachts Revealed

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich owns or is linked to a collection of five yachts estimated at nearly $1 billion, including several boats whose ownership remained secret until this week.

A Financial Times investigation into the billionaire’s assets lifted the veil of secrecy he maintains over his wealth, even after the UK and European Union imposed sanctions on him following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over his alleged friendship with the president. Vladimir Putin.

UK and EU authorities are trying to identify all assets owned by sanctioned oligarchs. Abramovich was once widely regarded as the owner of the yachts Solaris and Eclipse — worth $474 million and $437 million, respectively, according to yacht data service VesselsValue. But the FT revealed this week that he also owns Halo and Garçon, both of whom are anchored in Antigua in the Caribbean.

The Antiguan government was unaware of the ownership of the boats moored on the island prior to the FT’s investigations, highlighting the scale of the challenge UK and EU authorities face in enforcing sanctions.

Tom Keatinge, director of the Center for the Study of Financial Crimes and Security at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, said governments, banks and other institutions trying to impose sanctions had to navigate a world where “property trails cool and turn into a fog of shell companies, prosecutors and puppets”.

Halo and Garçon are valued at $38 million and $20 million, respectively, and are now in danger of being seized.

In a letter to the British High Commissioner in Barbados about the yachts, Antigua’s Foreign Minister Paul Chet Greene said the island will “give full assistance to the UK Government” if it receives a request under the two nations.

The letter noted that Antigua had requested information about the company that owned the two boats – British Virgin Islands-registered Wenham Overseas Limited – following “persistent allegations by the Financial Times that the ships could belong to Roman Abramovich”.

In response, the British High Commissioner provided the Antiguan authorities with a letter, seen by the FT, “from the British Virgin Islands Financial Investigation Agency, which states that the beneficial owner of Wenham Overseas Ltd is Roman Abramovich”.

The letter also shows that the billionaire’s Swiss address is listed simply as “Immeuble, Gatzby Le Magnifique” (Gatsby the Magnificent Building).

Keatinge described the UK’s ability to demand complete information about the ownership of companies registered in overseas territories or crown dependencies as its “most powerful global weapon” in combating financial secrecy.

However, he asked, “How much is this weapon being used?”

A person briefed on Abramovich’s boat collection and documents seen by the FT indicate the oligarch may also be the owner of the Whisper, the first yacht he bought, in 1998, despite reports he had given it to an ex-wife. in divorce.

The person who correctly identified the two yachts in Antigua as belonging to Abramovich told the FT that the oligarch still owns Whisper.

The ship’s owner is listed in the maritime registers as Vesuvius International Limited in the British Virgin Islands. British Virgin Islands documents show that this company closed in 2017. Another Vesuvius International was registered in Jersey in the same year.

The owner of Jersey-based Vesuvius International is listed as Wotton Overseas Holdings Limited. That entity – which moved from the British Virgin Islands to Jersey in 2017 – also owns, through a subsidiary, a helicopter that has been photographed several times landing on Abramovich’s Solaris yacht.

Maritime tracking services show the Whisper, valued at $11 million, is moored off La Ciotat in southern France — the same port where the French government last month seized an $116 million superyacht belonging to a related company. to Igor Sechin, head of Russian oil group Rosneft.

The company that manages Whisper is Cyprus-based Blue Ocean Management, which also manages Le Grand Bleu, the 113-meter superyacht Abramovich is said to have given to his partner Eugene Shvidler.

The UK put Shvidler under sanctions last week.​

The letter from the British Virgin Islands financial investigation agency to its British counterparts also reveals that the owner of Le Grand Bleu – Ashchurch Holdings Limited – is owned by “Zarui Shvidler”. Shvidler’s wife is commonly known as Zara Shvidler.

VesselsValue pegged Le Grand Bleu’s market value at a range of $110 million to $130 million, noting that the boat had last been tracked this week in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Puerto Rico.

Representatives for Abramovich and Shvidler did not respond to requests for comment.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves