The UK government may sue Russian billionaire Roman Abramovych to recover $3.2 billion he made from the sale of Chelsea Football Club and use the money for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
This is reported by the BBC, The Guardian and Bloomberg.
In 2022, Roman Abramovych sold the London team Chelsea to a consortium led by American investor Todd Boely. He did so after the UK and the European Union imposed sanctions on him for his links to Putin.
Since then, the money from the sale has been frozen in an account in a UK bank. The billionaire cannot transfer it to other accounts or use it without a license from the UK Financial Sanctions Enforcement Authority.
London tried to strike a deal with Roman Abramovych to channel the money into humanitarian aid for Ukraine. However, after three years of failure to reach an agreement, the government is considering legal action.
The British government allocated money in 2022 to create a charitable foundation that was supposed to help Ukrainians — in particular, with medicine, education, and housing. The idea for the foundation was proposed by Roman Abramovych himself, and he promised to transfer all net proceeds from the sale of the football club there.
Britain, the European Commission and Portugal (where Abramovych is a citizen) are trying to agree on how to use these funds without violating sanctions. But the process is becoming more complicated — frozen assets are legally difficult to transfer, and they are now looking for possible ways to use them for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
- In May 2022, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovych sold Chelsea FC to avoid sanctions that awaited the oligarch himself. American billionaire Todd Boley paid £2.5 billion for the club, leaving £2.3 billion after transaction costs.
- Abramovych “wanted the proceeds to be donated to a charitable foundation for the needs of victims in Russia and Ukraine”. Instead, the British government planned to transfer the money only to the newly created Fund for the Assistance of Victims of the War in Ukraine. However, the money got stuck: Britain does not allow the funds from the sale of Chelsea to be spent outside Ukraine.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.