Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK government placed a freeze on the assets of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich as part of a crackdown on London-based oligarchs.
The UK government placed a freeze on the 55-year-old oligarch’s assets in March as part of a crackdown on Vladimir Putin’s allies following the invasion of Ukraine. Despite adamantly denying that he has intimate ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Abramovich, who has owned Chelsea since 2003, was put on a list of UK-based Russian persons to be sanctioned.
The Premier League has since suspended him as a director, and Chelsea has been compelled to operate under a stringent operating license that ensures Abramovich will not get any financial compensation from the Premier League club. Abramovich had put the club up for sale before being sanctioned, with a preferred bidder set to be revealed in the coming weeks.
However, Abramovich would not receive any of the proceeds from the sale, which might reach £3 billion, under the current operating license. According to reports, Abramovich has approached some of his associates for loans of roughly £1 million apiece, with his money frozen and weekly bills of £600,000 to pay his workers.
According to the article, Brett Ratner, the director of Hollywood blockbusters such as Rush Hour and X-Men: The Last Stand, is one of the people on his contact list, which also includes acquaintances from Wall Street and the IT sector.
He is also claimed to have approached the Rothschild family, however no one has agreed to lend him the money as of yet. With Abramovich facing sanctions from several nations throughout the world, it’s unclear whether anyone who lends him money will suffer consequences. According to Forbes, he has lost more than £5 billion in personal fortune since the invasion began, yet his net worth is believed to be at £5.5 billion.
Abramovich was a member of the Russian team during last week’s peace negotiations in Istanbul, and is claimed to be striving to resolve the conflict, which began in late February. Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, claimed his attendance at the talks shown that Putin “believes and trusts him.”