Safe haven to sanctions: how Jersey sheltered Abramovich's billions

For decades the Channel Islands tax haven of Jersey has played a big role moving fortunes made in some of the world's most despotic countries into the west, attracting overseas oligarchs with a mix of low tax and high levels of financial secrecy.

- Juliette Garside

It is a secrecy that extends to Jersey's relationship with the UK government. As a crown dependency, Jersey has its own parliament, but belongs to the king. The relationship between the two jurisdictions remains something of a black box, with little public information on how the big decisions are made, or to what extent Westminster is consulted.

That changed last week, when Jersey itself released the details of a two-year legal battle with Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire and former Chelsea football club proprietor. On Monday, after a gagging order was lifted, the Jersey royal courts began publishing a series of previously undisclosed judgments. Fifteen have been released so far, running to 370 pages.

They reveal how, in 2016 and 2017, Abramovich and four of his associates were given safe harbour by the tax haven, which granted them residency under a special scheme for ultrahigh net worth individuals. Abramovich's application was approved in September 2017, the files show.

The oligarch was also granted permission by the Jersey government to relocate companies controlling the bulk of his fortune to the crown dependency. Transfers of assets from his offshore network took place in 2017, and again in 2021, months before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when holdings worth $7bn (£5.3bn) were relocated, according to the judgments. In 2016, a company of which Abramovich was the ultimate beneficial owner was also granted a licence to operate in Jersey. The company's name was anonymised but it appears to have been a family office, set up to manage his wealth. It advised on "philanthropic activities", the acquisition of aircraft, yachts and cars, and investments in Europe and North America.