Sanctions office 'reviewing Everton owner's finances'

94% Stake in Everton that Moshiri now holds, having bought just under 50% of the club in 2016

- Simon Goodley

• £1.6bn Moshiri’s estimated net worth, according to the Sunday Times Rich List published last month

The Treasury's sanctions police have been reviewing the finances of Everton Football Club's owner, Farhad Moshiri, the Guardian understands.

Moshiri appears to have become a person of interest to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) because of his links to Alisher Usmanov, the Russian-Uzbek billionaire who was sanctioned by the UK, the EU and the US after last year's invasion of Ukraine.

Usmanov has been barred from entering the UK since September 2021 after his presence was "not deemed conducive to the public good".

The apparent interest in Moshiri coincides with months of reporting by the Guardian, which has raised questions about the influence Usmanov has exerted over Moshiri and the Premier League club, including how the Russian tycoon came to attend job interviews with a series of prospective Everton managers before March 2022.

It also follows a Guardian report that revealed how the club's auditor, BDO, stepped away from signing off the club's accounts last year - a decision sources said was related to the ownership of the Premier League team.

The Guardian understands that BDO's concerns led to the OFSI being notified about Moshiri, who has hired an expert sanctions lawyer at Peters & Peters - one of the UK's largest law firms - according to correspondence sent to the Guardian on Moshiri's behalf.