Abramovich may owe HMRC £1bn for unpaid taxes, analysis suggests

The billionaire Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich may owe the HMRC in Britain as much as £1bn, according to analysis of documents that suggests his companies failed to pay tax on profits from an elaborate offshore investment scheme.

- Rob Davies Simon Lock

Leaked papers and court filings show that the former owner of Chelsea FC entrusted $6bn (£4.8bn) to more than 200 hedge funds using a circuitous structure routed through Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

The structure endured until at least 2022, when Abramovich was among the Kremlin allies hit with sanctions by western governments in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Today, an international investigation involving the Guardian, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC indicates that while the investments were made by BVI-based companies, they appear to have been controlled for nearly two decades by a UK-based senior executive working for Abramovich.

If the key decisions were made in Britain, the oligarch's companies could owe more than £500m in tax, analysis of the documents suggests.

Factoring in interest and penalties for late payments, HMRC could be owed as much as £1bn.

Although the files are very detailed, it is possible that elements are missing.

But the leaked material is sufficient to raise questions about whether UK tax should have been paid, experts said.

The investigation is part of Cyprus Confidential, a huge leak of financial information from the Mediterranean tax haven, which the Guardian and reporting partners have been examining since 2022.

The findings prompted calls for HMRC to review the Abramovich tax file.

Lawyers for Abramovich declined to answer detailed questions, responding only in the broadest terms.

They said he had always acted in accordance with professional tax advice.

He denied that he was personally responsible for any alleged failure to pay taxes that were due.

It was the $13bn deal to sell his Siberian oil and gas business to Russia's state-owned Gazprom that propelled Roman Abramovich into the ranks of the super-rich in 2005.