Originally Syndicated on May 13, 2023 @ 10:53 am
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov found themselves subjected to UK sanctions. However, their associates and legal representatives have been working diligently to bypass these sanctions by conducting business activities on their behalf or shifting their finances within the United Kingdom.
New sanctions have been put on people who helped Russian oligarchs keep their businesses going in the UK. It includes people who helped Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov, a former shareholder in Arsenal FC.
Previously, both Mr. Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea FC, and Mr. Usmanov, who also held a stake in Everton FC, were sanctioned in March 2022 due to their perceived close affiliations with Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. It’s worth noting that Mr. Abramovich vehemently denies any such association. These initial sanctions resulted in the freezing of over £18 billion worth of assets belonging to oligarchs in the UK.
Still, many billionaires were able to keep doing business in the UK by using financial middlemen, family, offshore trusts, and shell companies.
Mr. Usmanov‘s financial network, including Curzon Square Limited, the firm responsible for managing his London office and the lease of a 72-room Grade II-listed mansion near Buckingham Palace in Mayfair’s Curzon Square, has also been subjected to sanctions. Remarkably, just three days before the invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Usmanov transferred Curzon Square Ltd.’s ownership of the mansion to his business empire, Metalloinvest, Russia’s largest iron ore producer. Since the initial sanctions were directed solely at him, Curzon Square Ltd. could still oversee property interests in London.
Furthermore, the new sanctions encompass USM, the company in which Mr. Usmanov maintains significant ownership and which also owns Metalloinvest. Hanley Limited, an Isle of Man-based company through which Mr. Usmanov acquired Grade II-listed Beechwood House in Hampstead, north London, for £48 million in 2008, is now also under sanctions. Additionally, the father and daughter of Mr. Usmanov’s business associate, Andrei Skoch, namely Vladimir and Varvara Skoch, have been included in the sanctions list.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly declared, “We are closing in on the Russian elite and those who attempt to aid them in concealing their finances for war. There is no refuge. We will continue to strip them of assets they believed were successfully concealed. In collaboration with our international partners, the UK will persistently clamp down on those who support the war. Our efforts will persist until Putin changes his course.”
The latest round of sanctions also encompasses family members of other sanctioned oligarchs, whom the government alleges are being employed as proxies to conceal their assets. This group includes the daughter, son, and wife of Vladimir Evtushankov, the billionaire majority owner and founder of the Russian conglomerate Sistema, specializing in banking, hotels, and previously, aerospace and defense.
Gulnara Kerimova, the daughter of billionaire oligarch and Russian politician Suleyman Kerimov and a significant stakeholder in Gazprom, Uralkali, and Sberbank, has also been subjected to sanctions due to her ownership of four luxurious villas in France on her father’s behalf. Mr. Kerimov’s nephew, Nariman Gadzhiev, is likewise on the list, as he acts as the beneficiary owner of a series of shell companies connected to his uncle, including one that transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to firms associated with Mr. Kerimov.
The list of sanctioned individuals concludes with Oksana Marchenko, the wife of a key ally of Putin and former Ukrainian politician Victor Medvedchuk. Mrs. Marchenko is the owner of multiple luxury properties in Crimea.
These measures collectively represent a concerted effort to curb the influence and activities of the Russian elite, ensuring that they cannot use the UK as a haven for their finances or business endeavors during times of conflict.
