Everton owner received £400m from Usmanov firms, documents suggest

The Everton football club owner, Farhad Moshiri, received more than £400m from Alisher Usmanov companies in the run-up to the Russian billionaire being placed under sanctions, documents suggest, raising fresh questions about the financial ties between the two men.

- Simon Goodley

Records seen by the Guardian appear to show Moshiri borrowed £145m from a firm wholly owned by the Russian tycoon from about 2020. The papers also set out how, from 2018 to 2022, Moshiri sold about £270m of shares in a company whose largest shareholder was Usmanov.

Moshiri did not pay for those shares, public accounts imply, which accounting experts suggested could mean the share sales were a gift.

Usmanov has long had business ties with Moshiri and the pair jointly owned a stake in Arsenal football club. Moshiri sold his Arsenal shares back to Usmanov in 2016 to fund his initial investment in Everton.

The discovery of the previously unreported financial records raises fresh questions about the relationship between the men - as well as the true wealth of Moshiri, just days after the British businessman announced a provisional deal to sell Everton to the US investment firm 777 Partners.

The papers also appear to misalign with Moshiri's statements about how he could continue to fund Everton himself, as well as his promise to provide ongoing financial backing that was crucial to the club's auditors signing off its 2022 accounts this year.

In January, Moshiri told TalkSport: "I put my money where my mouth is, that's the most an owner can do."

After being presented with the information laid out in the internal documents, a spokesperson for Usmanov declined to discuss details of the funding but said: "Mr Moshiri and his companies are indeed indebted to Mr Usmanov and entities affiliated with him.

"We hope the debt will be repaid after Mr Moshiri closes the sale of the Everton club."