Firms linked to Roman Abramovich revealed to be funding fugitive Moldovan fraudster Ilan Shor

Ilan Shor, the fugitive Moldovan-Israeli fraudster convicted of embezzling $1 billion from Moldova’s banking system who has lived in Russia since 2023, is having his pro-Kremlin election-meddling activities in the Post-Soviet Space funded by entities linked to Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Arkady Rotenberg, an investigation published by Novaya Gazeta Europe on Wednesday has revealed.

Shor, who fled Moldova to avoid being jailed for masterminding what was later dubbed the ”theft of the century”, has also come under international sanctions for his attempts to incite mass protests and bribe voters ahead of Moldova’s 2024 elections, where he has for years been involved with various pro-Kremlin movements seeking to end Chisinau’s dreams of joining the EU in favour of reintegrating the country with Russia.

More recently, Shor was accused of meddling in this month’s crucial elections in Armenia in an attempt to bring the country back into Moscow’s fold following a concerted effort under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to end its reliance on Russia and to build new alliances with Europe and the United States. Though those attempts ultimately came to nothing, Shor has built an indispensable influence network that allows the Kremlin to place its fingers on the scales of democracy throughout the former Soviet Union.

After reviewing financial disclosures for 2025 made by Diamond Estate, a company which finances many of Shor’s high-profile projects, Novaya Gazeta Europe has traced major loans it received to companies that are part-owned by structures connected to former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and close childhood friend of Vladimir Putin Arkady Rotenberg.

Among the beneficiaries were the non-profit Evraziya Foundation, which was placed under international sanctions after it was implicated in Shor’s attempts to incite protests and buy votes in Moldova’s 2024 election.

For example, the Kachkanar Mining and Processing Plant (EVRAZ KGOK), a subsidiary of the Evraz Group, whose main shareholder is Abramovich, provided Diamond Estate with a loan of more than €83 million in 2024.

Diamond Estate also received some 60 billion rubles (€710 million) from Business Broker Finance, which, in turn, received two loans totalling 6.3 billion rubles (€75 million) from the company TK MS Trade, according to Business Broker Finance’s financial disclosures. Though it’s unclear who ultimately owns TK MS Trade, the company is headed by Evraz manager Yevgeny Murlyk.

In addition to various entities connected to Abramovich, Diamond Estate’s creditors include companies linked to Putin’s closest associate and childhood friend, Arkady Rotenberg.

For instance, Diamond Estate received a loan of 221 million rubles (€2.6 million) from the company Centre-M, which acts in the interests of Rotenberg and which has previously been investigated by Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Diamond Estate’s accounts also revealed that it is paying interest on a loan it received from Mashinter, a firm operating traffic cameras in Russian-annexed Crimea, which until 2022 belonged to businessman Yevgeny Roitman, whose links to Rotenberg have previously been reported. Mashinter is also believed to be involved in financing Russia’s sanctions-busting shadow fleet.

Others involved in funding Diamond Estate include Andrey Goncharenko, a former business associate of the Rotenberg brothers, whose links with Shor have been widely reported, and who carried out assignments for Russia’s FSB in Moldova, according to The Washington Post.

Also linked to financing the group are Konstantin Simkin and Arie Geler, both of whom are shareholders in Russia’s internationally sanctioned Sinko Bank and have been linked to Shor by Moldovan media investigations.

Virtually all of Diamond Estate’s activities relate to the financing of projects led by Shor, and companies it paid include blocked pro-Russian TV channels in Moldova controlled by Shor and an advertising agency selling integration services for Russian social media on the Moldovan market.

Diamond Estates is also linked to companies based in Kyrgyzstan that have been involved in a system for making international payments to Russia in circumvention of international sanctions. Such services are used by many Russian companies, including sanctioned manufacturers of combat drones for the war in Ukraine.