Billionaire Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov may have put some of his most valuable UK properties out of the law’s reach before being sanctioned, it has today been claimed.
The Russian businessman – who is believed to be worth nearly £15 billion – is thought to own at least six properties in the UK, including a stunning 19th Century north London mansion worth £48million.
The former Arsenal FC shareholder, 68, is also linked to a 16th Century Surrey estate – thought to be worth as much as £34million.
Ministers sanctioned Mr Usmanov, a metal, telecoms and media magnate, earlier this month because of his ‘close links to the Kremlin’.
The sanctions were designed to encourage oligarchs to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine.
But today a spokesperson for the billionaire, who was until recently a key backer of Everton football club, said most of his properties in Britain had been transferred into trusts.
He said the property assets, as well as his yacht, had been ‘transferred into irrevocable trusts’ to benefit his family prior to the sanctions being imposed.
‘From that point on, Mr Usmanov did not own them, nor was he able to manage them or deal with their sale, but could only use them on a rental basis, the spokesman said.
‘Mr Usmanov withdrew from the beneficiaries of the trusts, donating his beneficial rights to his family,’ he added.
The comments are likely to heap pressure on the UK Government, who proudly boasted when imposing the sanctions on Mr Usmanov that they would cut him off from ‘significant UK interests including mansions worth tens of millions’.
Billionaire Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov (pictured: Usmanov with Putin in 2018) may have put many of his UK properties out of the law’s reach before being sanctioned, it has today been claimed
The Russian businessman who is believed to be worth nearly £15 billion, is thought to own at least six properties in the UK, including a stunning 19th Century London mansion worth £48million (pictured: Beechwood House in Hampstead)
The former Arsenal FC stakeholder is also linked to a 16th Century Surrey estate – Sutton Place (pictured) – thought to be worth as much as £34million
It will also heap pressure on officials to look at sanctions on the family members of oligarchs with links to Putin.
So far the British and other western governments have largely avoided extending sanctions to the family members.
But ministers may now have to think again, with sanctions experts now questioning whether the Government could struggle to link the properties to Mr Usmanov under the more opaque and complex ownership structures.
James Birkett, a sanctions expert at the business intelligence firm Alaco, told The Guardian: ‘The challenge would be identifying and evidencing these relationships [between the sanctioned individual and family members and associates] – both given the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation’s (OFSI) well-known capacity constraints and the ability to obfuscate the ownership of assets via offshore structures.
‘It is likely that such a move would be subject to legal challenge and OFSI would want to be pretty sure it could avoid the embarrassment of being required to reverse its decision…
‘Nobody is really going after family members yet. It would be a step-change in how the programmes have been applied.’
Among the UK properties linked to Mr Usmanov are the 16th Century Surrey estate Sutton Place, worth £34million, and the £48million Hampstead mansion Beechwood House, which he bought in 2008 while a 30 per cent shareholder of Premier League side Arsenal.
According to the Financial Times, Sutton Place is owned by Delesius Investments Limited and Bacerius Investments Limited, which are both incorporated in Cyprus.
Beechwood House is owned by Isle of Man-based Hanley Limited, according to Land Registry records.
Mr Usmanov and fellow leading oligarch and former Russian deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov were told they faced a full asset freeze and travel ban over their ‘close links to the Kremlin’.
He also sanctioned by the EU. Reports by Forbes suggested that his £437-million superyacht Dilbar had been impounded at a yard in Hamburg, Germany, last month. The reports were later updated to say that the boat’s future was ‘uncertain’ after The Guardian reported on claims by German officials that they had not seized the boat. Latest pictures show the superyacht, which is reportedly being refurbished, surrounded by scaffolding.
Speaking at the time of the sanctions, on March 3, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: ‘Sanctioning Usmanov and Shuvalov sends a clear message that we will hit oligarchs and individuals closely associated with the Putin regime and his barbarous war.
‘We won’t stop here. Our aim is to cripple the Russian economy and starve Putin’s war machine.’
It comes after MailOnline revealed how Mr Usmanov had begun laying off staff at his luxury mansions in Surrey and London in an apparent sign that he may have left the UK for good.
MailOnline was told earlier this month that gardeners and housekeepers were being made redundant by the billionaire after years of loyal service.
Security teams including dog handlers were also told that their jobs were on the line and had been advised to send out their CVs to look for other jobs.
The staff who are thought to number more than 20 people are all believed to be UK nationals, working either directly for Usmanov or for contracted companies.
All were based at Beechwood House in Highgate, north London, or his 16th century Sutton Place estate which is the former home of American oil tycoon J Paul Getty near Woking, Surrey.
A member of Usmanov’s staff said: ‘All cleaning staff and gardeners have been let go.
‘Obviously they’re distraught as they’ve no longer got jobs, but they did see it coming.
‘The staff have just been told they’re no longer needed. The security staff have been told to sort out their CVs and look for somewhere else.’
Another source said: ‘All these people have given years of loyal service to Usmanov and his family, and have enabled him to lead a pampered and protected life in the UK.
‘Now they are being cast aside. It is a blow for them. They are just ordinary people who happened to work for an oligarch and now they are paying the price.
‘I know the Government is trying to hit oligarchs in their pockets. But these people have now become innocent victims of that policy.’
MailOnline revealed last week that Usmanov had been seeking to sell Beechwood House before the war started in an apparent to offload assets as the threat of sanctions loomed.
The Grade II listed Georgian mansion was put on the market by the Emir of Qatar in 2007 when it was listed for sale at £65 million making it London’s most expensive property at the time
Pictured: Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov and his wife, rhythmic gymnast coach Iriva Viner-Usmanova attend the State Awards Ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow in 2018
Reports by Forbes suggested that his £437-million superyacht Dilbar had been impounded at a yard in Hamburg, Germany, last month. The reports were later updated to say that the boat’s future was ‘uncertain’ after The Guardian reported on claims by German officials that they had not seized the boat
Latest pictures show the superyacht, which is reportedly being refurbished, surrounded by scaffolding (pictured)
A source also told MailOnline that extensive building work to install a state-of-the-art air conditioning system in Grade One listed Sutton Place had ground to a halt this week.
A team of around 20 builders and contractors who have been at the house for around five months have been told to stay away for at least two weeks.
It is believed that all have been promised that they will be paid money owed to them, although they are still waiting to receive it.
The source said: ‘Sutton Place is very opulent inside, but there are cameras and eyes everywhere.
‘There is a lot of original panelling and features, and some very expensive furniture. You can tell from the quality of the stitching on the tailored sofas. It’s certainly not from DFS, put it that way. It’s quite obviously ridiculously expensive.
‘There is rarely any members of the family there. I heard that when some family members arrived recently, it was treated like a Royal visit. The builders were all kept out of their way.
‘Despite the house being largely unoccupied, it still had a large team of gardeners and housekeepers before this week. You saw them dancing around with vacuum cleaners all day long.’
MailOnline revealed earlier this month that Usmanov was believed to have fled from Germany to his palace in his native Uzbekistan.
Flight tracker records reveal that his personal Airbus A340-300 flew on Monday night from Munich International Airport to Tashkent, the capital of impoverished Uzbekistan.
Russian sources suggest that Usmanov has a palace in Tashkent where he can relax, knowing that it is a home which can never be seized by western Governments.
Usmanov bought his Grade Two listed Georgian mansion Beechwood House for a knockdown £48million in 2008.
The house had been put on the market the previous year by the Emir of Qatar for £65million – making it London’s most expensive property at the time.
Alisher Usmanov talks to Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich after a match between Chelsea and Arsenal in 2009. Both have been sanctioned by the UK Government
Usmanov was, until recently, a key backer of Everton Football Club and is a business partner of Everton’s majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri. Pictured: Workers take down the branding of Everton sponsor Megafon at Goodison Park in Liverpool
The purchase was shrouded in secrecy with only one published picture of the estate being released. One property expert commenting at the time, said: ‘It’s magnificent.’
Usmanov protected his property with state-of-the-art security systems including motion detectors surrounding the entire property along with thermal and night vision cameras. Dog handlers also patrolled the site.
Land Registry records show that the Regency-style mansion which was built in 1840 has been owned since March 2008 by an Isle of Man registered company called Hanley Limited.
Company records suggest the firm, registered in Douglas, was dissolved last October, shrouding the exact ownership of the eight bedroom house in mystery.
But one source suggested to MailOnline that the house was ultimately owned by Usmanov’s sister Gulbakhor Burkhanova who is known to staff working there as Madam G.
The property which boasts actor Jude Law and pop star Harry Styles as near neighbour includes a three bedroom guest bungalow, eight room staff quarters, a squash court and a six-room pool house.
The Roman Empire: Abramovich’s vast £250m UK portfolio of 70 properties including 42 Chelsea flats worth up to £40m and £120m Kensington mansion is revealed among £12BN of global Russian assets linked to Putin
By Martin Robinson, Chief Reporter for MailOnline
Roman Abramovich’s UK private property portfolio – and the amount of London he has been able to buy up in 20 years – is far larger than imagined as it today emerged the oligarch and his family has amassed a bank of 53 luxury British homes worth more than £250million.
The sanctioned billionaire, 55, who also owns £3.1billion Chelsea, is also said to be linked to a further 17 commercial properties and pieces of land in the capital, nicknamed ‘Moscow on Thames’ due to the amount of Russian cash pumped into the city.
This extraordinary global property empire, comprising more than 70 UK assets alone, raises questions about how effective sanctions against him really are because of opaque and arms-length ownership structures used by rich Russian to frustrate efforts to freeze bank accounts or even seize their homes.
It had been thought that Abramovich’s only British homes were a £150million mansion next to Kensington Palace and a £22million Thames-side penthouse close to his football club reported to have bulletproof glass. He is also known to own more than £1.2billion of yachts, private jets, helicopters and supercars based in Britain and around the world.
But today it was claimed that his UK property assets are much more significant, including 41 flats in Chelsea Village, the hotel and plush block right next to Stamford Bridge worth £50million including a £4million penthouse, it has been claimed.
Abramovich’s assets have been laid bare by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, working in conjunction with various media organisations. They also claim he has more than £200million of properties across Europe and the US plus links to two Cyprus-based trust funds said to be worth around £1.3billion.
The Guardian has also claimed that Abramovich’s close relatives also own UK homes including two Belgravia homes next door to each other with matching privet hedges and a ‘flower-filled first-floor balcony’. They also reportedly added a £17.5million Kensington townhouse during the pandemic.
Roman Abramovich’s massive property portfolio in the UK, Europe, the Caribbean and the US is laid bare today
Oligarchs have been linked to more than 80 homes in London and Surrey – Roman Abramovich is reported to own 70 of them
Abramovich and related businesses are said to own 41 flats in Chelsea Village, the hotel and plush block right next to Stamford Bridge (pictured) worth £50million including a £4million penthouse
Eclipse, the private luxury yacht of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, anchors at Cruise Port in Marmaris, Turkey, as Abramovich moves his assets out of the reach of those who wish to seize them
Solaris, his second superyacht, is pictured in Bodrum today
Oligarch Roman Abramovich’s prized 14,000-square-foot mega-home in the Rocky Mountains worth $50 million could be among the first assets frozen if he is sanctioned by the White House
His commercial properties include the Kingsmeadow Stadium, where Chelsea Women play in Kingston, owned via Chelsea. Mr Abramovich’s football club is also said to own a £8.75million apartment at Cheyne Terrace and a £2million home near its training ground in Cobham, Surrey.
£500m mystery superyacht moored in the port of Marina di Carrara DOES belongs to Putin, says Alexei Navalny allies
The six-deck yacht ‘Scheherezade’ has space the equivalent of two apartment blocks, along with a spa, swimming pool and a beauty salon
Allies of Alexei Navalny have told Italian authorities they should seize a 460ft vessel moored off the country’s coast because they can prove it belongs to the Russian leader.
A probe by the Russian opposition leader’s anti-corruption unit examined a host of luxury assets in Europe which they claim are the property of Putin and his family.
Chief among the alleged assets is the $700million superyacht, measuring 140-metres in length, complete with luxury features including two helipads.
The six-deck yacht ‘Scheherezade’ contains space that is the equivalent of two apartment blocks, along with a spa and beauty salon. It is currently moored in the port of Marina di Carrara off the west coast of Italy.
The sensational material shared on Navalny’s YouTube channel by presenters Georgy Alburov and Maria Pevchikh shows that the captain of the ship is British, but the rest of the crew is allegedly from the FSO and FSB – two Russian secret services.
Associates of the Navalny are demanding that Italian authorities now confiscate the boat.
On social media, Ms Pevchikh said: ‘We’ve been investigating Putin’s corruption for over a decade, and there is one thing we know for sure – Putin never keeps assets under his own name.
‘A dozen of Putin’s personal guards and servants are constantly maintaining one of the world’s largest yachts, docked in an Italian port. We think that this is solid enough proof that Scheherezade belongs to Putin himself and must be immediately seized.’
Mr Volkov added: ‘We found another $700 million that Putin stole from the Russians – the yacht, for which Russian soldiers are now dying.’
Outside Britain the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project says he owns the Chateau de la Croe, on France’s Cote d’Azur, which was once lived in by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, said to be worth up to £100million. He also owns a £33million villa in nearby St Tropez.
He also has homes worth £10million-plus each in Salzburg, Austria, and a townhouse in Paris. Further afield there is a £37million US super ranch in Aspen, a £54million estate in St Barts in the Caribbean and a £17million hotel in Tel Aviv Israel.
His property empire in Russia is less clear – but Abramovich’s holding company, Millhouse Capital, owns more than £760million of assets in his homeland, including Four Winds Plaza, an office and residential block in Moscow, and the recently acquired Kristall hotel in the Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik.
MailOnline has asked Mr Abramovich to comment.
Today’s Guardian report lists £13billion ($17billion) of global assets linked to 35 Russian oligarchs and officials with close links to Putin that have been identified in more than 145 offshore bank accounts, luxury yachts, jets and properties in London, Tuscany and the French Riviera.
Just six individuals have been linked to seven yachts, 11 private jets and helicopters – worth a combined $2billion (£1.5billion), according to research by the Guardian and Organised Crime and Corruption Russian asset tracker.
In the UK properties and land collectively worth more than half a billion dollars (£379 million) are linked through relatives, trusts or companies to four leading oligarchs: Abramovich, Alisher Usmanov, Oleg Deripaska and Igor Shuvalov.
According to The Guardian Deripaska has billions of dollars in shares, a hotel in the Austrian Alps and luxury properties in London, Paris, Washington DC and New York, as well as four villas in Sardinia.
Last week a mansion owned by a sanctioned Russian oligarch has been occupied by squatters who have demanded it is used to house Ukrainian refugees.
Police were locked in a standoff with the activists after they broke into a six-storey townhouse in Central London owned by Deripaska. A spokesman for Deripaska later claimed the house in Belgravia belongs to a relative.
A spokesman for the billionaire told the Guardian today: ‘It is unclear how publishing this kind of ‘asset inventory’ might serve the public interest. Unless, of course, by ‘public interest’ you mean encouraging squatters to occupy private property, like they did with a London house belonging to Mr Deripaska’s relatives.
‘All of the property and assets that he owns were acquired by fair means. The ongoing media frenzy, regrettable as it is, certainly doesn’t give anyone the right to call Mr Deripaska a kleptocrat. The Russia witch-hunt of which Mr Deripaska has become a victim is driven entirely by political motives.’
A spokesperson for Usmanov added: ‘The entirety of Mr Usmanov’s capital was built through successful, sometimes risky, investments, as well as through the effective management of his assets, which is the essence of business. Therefore, to characterise the source of his money as ‘non-transparent’ is inherently incorrect and damages Mr Usmanov’s reputation as an honest entrepreneur and philanthropist.’
It came as Ukrainians on a small dinghy attempted to block a super yacht belonging to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich from docking in Turkey yesterday.
Abramovich is worth £10.4bn ($12.5bn), according to Forbes, and owns a £150m Kensington mansion, a £22m penthouse, and more than £1.2bn of yachts, private jets, helicopters and supercars based in Britain and around the world. He now cannot sell any of them. Oleg Derispaska is also sanctioned and owns around £100m of UK property
Oligarchs with the links to the UK include Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska (pictured right), who was once Russia’s richest man
Gaunt-looking Alexei Navalny faces 13 years in maximum security jail after Russian court finds him guilty of trumped-up fraud charges and ‘insulting a judge’
Navalny (third from right) found a rare moment of Kafkaesque humour in the ‘sham’ trial, with charges of fraud and contempt of court brought against Vladimir Putin’s most famous critic
Putin-foe Alexei Navalny is facing years in a maximum security jail after a Russian court found him guilty of trumped-up fraud charges and contempt of court.
Navalny is already serving a two-and-a-half year sentence at a prison camp east of Moscow for parole violations related to charges he says were fabricated to thwart his political ambitions.
A trial this morning, at a prison colony outside Moscow, concerned additional embezzlement and contempt of court charges.
A gaunt and skinny Navalny stood besides his lawyers wearing his black prison uniform in a room filled with prison security officers as the judge read out the accusations against him.
The 45-year-old seemed unfazed, looking down as he flipped through court documents and occasionally smiling. Journalists watched the case via a video link.
Investigators accused Navalny of stealing for personal use several million dollars’ worth of donations that were given to his political organisations.
‘Navalny committed fraud – the theft of property by an organised group,’ judge Margarita Kotova said before adding that ‘by insulting a judge’, Navalny had also committed contempt of court.
In the latest criminal case against him, which he has also dismissed as politically motivated, Navalny could have up to 13 years added to that sentence.
A prosecutor last week called for Navalny’s sentence to be transferred to a ‘strict regime’ penal colony, which would place him in harsher conditions. Navalny denies the charges.
The group held two Ukrainian flags up in protest to the towering boat with the words ‘No War’ emblazoned on them.
A photo posted on Facebook showed the small boat blocking the route to the dock in Turkey’s Aegean Sea resort of Bodrum, by passing in front of the £430million luxury boat.
Irina Demiroglu, who took the photo, wrote: ‘Meanwhile, Roman Abramovich’s super yacht arrived in Bodrum.
‘But here she was met by our brave, Ukrainian athletes with flags, slogans ‘no to war!’, And demands to stop the war immediately.’
A video of the protest posted on social media by Slava Madonich showed just how dangerously close the group came to the 460ft yacht Solaris.
The Bermuda-flagged yacht docked at the southern port in Turkey, which has not introduced sanctions on Russia, after it left Montenegro, according to Turkey’s private NTV television.
Mr Abramovich was sanctioned last week by the European Union, who followed the UK, as the list of individuals facing travel bans and asset freezes grew.
Hundreds of Russians have face economic sanctions over ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.
Turkey is a Nato-member but has close ties to both Russia and Ukraine.
The country has criticised Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and closed the Turkish Straits connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to most Russian warships.
But Turkey has also attempted to mediate between the two and positioned itself as a neutral party. Sanctions have not been imposed on Russia and Turkish airspace has not been closed to Russian flights.
The 55-year-old Mr Abramovich put Chelsea up for sale on March 2, amid Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine.
The Raine Group, a US-based merchant bank, is managing the sale process. Interested bidders had until last Friday to submit their plans.
London property developer Nick Candy last night increased his consortium’s offer for Chelsea to more than £2.5 billion after receiving additional backing from an unnamed South Korean group.
Candy’s Blue Football Consortium are understood to have submitted proof of funds to the Raine Group, who are in the process of whittling down around 50 initial bids to a shortlist of three or four.
The potential buyers have been told to expect notification of the shortlisted bids later this week in what is developing into a competitive auction.
Following Raine’s initial shortlist, bids will be passed on to Chelsea to identify a preferred bidder, with chairman Bruce Buck and director Marina Granovskaia expected to lead that process given owner Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned.
After the preferred bidder has been identified, details of the winner will be passed to the Government, who have to sign off the deal.
If the Government reject it, the club will need to select another offer.
VTB Bank president Andrei Kostin is now under the UK sanctions regime
Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller (left) and Bank Rossiya chair Dmitri Lebedev (right) have been added to the UK list
Nikolai Tokarev (left) and Igor Sechin have also been targeted by the UK government
Chelsea could also turn down any of the offers and there have been suggestions that Abramovich may refuse to deal with buyers from a country who have sanctioned him, such as Britain and the United States. Only after all these hurdles have been cleared will the winning bid be passed on to the Premier League, who must then decide if the buyers pass their owners’ and directors’ test. Many bidders have opted to go public, with London-based asset management firm Centricus the latest to declare their hand. Centricus have yet to disclose the source of their funding.
The investment firm have previously worked for Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, the owners of Newcastle.
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