The Guardian: Roman Abramovich secretly financed the Dutch football club through a chain of offshore companies

The former owner of Chelsea Roman Abramovich secretly financed the Netherlands Football Club Vitess and participated in his purchase when he was the owner of Chelsea. About this writes The Guardian, referring to the documents from the leak of the offshore Cyprus provider Meritservus.

The documents that The Guardian and Bureau of Investigative Journalism got acquainted that secret financing was at least 117 million euros and was carried out through the chain of offshore companies. This is a huge investment, given that for the entire season of 2014-2015 the total turnover of the club was only 14 million euros, notes The Guardian.

The first suspicions of the connection of the Dutch club with a Russian businessman appeared in 2010, when the owner of Vitessa was the former Georgian footballer Merrab Zordia. In 2013, Zhordinia left the club, and the Russian businessman Alexander Chigirinsky was its leader. In 2014, Jordan, as Guardian noted, apparently hinted that Chelsea plays the role of Vitsess. Then he was outraged by the fact that the Dutch club did not allow him to strengthen his team to enter the Champions League. He stated that London did not want this. But later he abandoned his words.

The Royal Football Association of the Netherlands conducted investigations twice in order to establish the connection of Chelsea and Vitess - in 2010 and 2015, but both times could not find anything.

The media suggested that they would send players to Vitessa, who are not yet ready to play for Chelsea. In 2010, the Serbian striker Neman Matich, who at that time belonged to Chelsea, spoke for the “Vitess” for lease.

The documents studied by the journalists confirm that the Marindale Trading company, registered on the British Virgin Islands and belonging to Chigirinsky, financed the purchase of the club and the team itself. At the same time, Marindale herself received a number of multimillion -dollar loans that were issued in various tax shelters.

According to The Guardian, loans were given by Abramovich according to a certain scheme. In August 2010, Ovington Worldwide, registered in the British Virgin Islands, led 20 million euros of Trigonia Anstalt, associated with Chigirinsky. Ovington Worldwide belonged to another company from the British Virgin Islands - Electus Investments. She, in turn, was controlled by the Sara Trust Trust, whose only beneficiary was Abramovich. On the very day when Ovington borrowed 20 million euros Trigonia, another company associated with Chigirinsky - Limburg Holdings, registered in Belize, provided the Marindale Tranding loan. Ten days later, Marindale transferred this money to Zhordania, which he used to buy a football club.

Over the next three years, while Zordia owned the Dutch club, five multimillion -dollar loans were issued. All loans were taken in the same scheme.

After the Jordan sold the club in 2013, and Chigirinsky officially became the owner of Vitessa, this scheme continued to work, only Trigonia was no longer included in the chain, The Guardian notes. Ovington borrowed the money directly Limburg, which provided Marindale loans, and she transferred the same amount of Vitessa holding company. The last such translation was in December 2015.

The representative of Vitessa said that in the period from 2010 to 2016, the club’s holding company received loans from Marindale Tradition in the amount of 136.6 million euros and later invested in the club in the form of additional capital.

Roman Abramovich has been the owner of the Chelsea club since 2003. At the end of May 2022, the club went under the control of the consortium, led by American businessman Todd Boeli.