Abramovich uncovered: Train theft and kidnap in secret document
New evidence about the corrupt deals that made Roman Abramovich his fortune in Russia have been uncovered.
The BBC obtained a document that is thought to have been smuggled out Russia by a confidential source, who claimed they had secretly copied the information on Abramovich from Russian law enforcement agencies.
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This could not be verified but the BBC investigated the claims and found other sources to corroborate them.
The Chelsea owner – who was sanctioned by the UK government last week for his links with Vladimir Putin and has had all his assets frozen – is said to have made his billions buying an oil company from the Russian government in a rigged auction in 1995.
Abramovich paid around $250m for Sibneft, before selling it back to the Russian government for $13bn in 2005.
The oligarch has already admitted in a UK court in 2012 that he gave former business associate Boris Berezovsky – the man suing him – $10m to pay off a Kremlin official.
It’s claimed much of the money borrowed by Abramovich to buy Sibneft came from the Russian government.
The secret document says ‘shortly before the auction… a government minister deposited $137m dollars of the budget money’ (Russian taxpayers’ money) into a bank, which then lent Abramovich the money to buy the company.
The BBC document adds yet more meat to the bones, claiming the Russian government (and by proxy the Russian people) was cheated out of $2.7bn in the Sibneft deal.
The document states that ‘if Abramovich could be brought to trial he would have faced accusations of fraud… by an organised criminal group’.
Russia’s former chief prosecuter, Yuri Skuratov, who investigated the deal in the 1990s, told BBC Panorama: “Basically, it was a fraudulent scheme, where those who took part in the privatisation formed one criminal group that allowed Abramovich and Berezovsky to trick the government and not pay the money that this company was really worth.”
The document also suggests Mr Abramovich was protected by Boris Yeltsin, with the former Russia president stopping Skuratov’s investigation.
The document says: ‘Skuratov was preparing a criminal case for the confiscation of Sibneft on the basis of the investigation of its privatisation. The investigation was stopped by President Yeltsin … Skuratov was dismissed from his office.’
Mr Skuratov was sacked after the release of a sex tape in 1999, which he says it was a stitch-up to discredit him.
He said: “This whole thing was obviously political, because in my investigations I came very close to the family of Boris Yeltsin, including via this investigation of the Sibneft privatisation.”
Abramovich was involved in another rigged auction two years later, for the Russian oil company Slavneft, having remained close to the Kremlin as Putin came to power.
A Chinese company bid almost twice as much as Abramovich for Slavneft, but with powerful people – including Putin – set to lose out if Abramovich’s consortium lost, a member of the Chinese delegation was kidnapped when they arrived in Moscow for the auction, according to the document.
‘CNPC, Chinese company, a very strong competitor, had to withdraw from the auction after one of its representatives was kidnapped upon arrival at Moscow Airport and was released only after the company declared its withdrawal.’
The kidnapping story is said to have been backed up by independent sources.
Russia’s deputy energy minister Vladimir Milov said senior political figures had already decided Abramovich’s group would win the auction.
Milov said: “I said, look, the Chinese want to come in and they want to pay a much bigger price. They say it doesn’t matter, shut up, none of your business. It’s already decided. Slavneft goes to Abramovich, the price is agreed. The Chinese will be dragged out somehow.”
Abramovich’s lawyers insist the kidnap claim “is entirely unsubstantiated” and Abramovich has “no knowledge of such incident”.
The Chinese group withdrew, leaving Abramovich with the only remaining bid, meaning Abramovich’s partnership bought Slavneft at a knockdown price.
Abramovich’s lawyers claim allegations of corruption in the Slavneft and Sibneft deals are false.
But Abramovich had a scrape with the law before the two oil company deals.
In 1992, when Abramovich was just 25, the document claims the deputy city prosecutor of Moscow ‘authorised the imprisonment of Abramovich under Article 90 of the criminal procedure code’.
Russian detectives were investigating the alleged theft of a trainload of diesel, with Abramovich the main suspect.
The document states: ‘Abramovich personally met the shipment and using forged documents had it rerouted to Riga where the diesel oil was sold’.
Abramovich was arrested but never charged and his lawyers claim it was “all a misunderstanding and the matter was resolved”.
But the document suggests Abramovich was detained in police custody – a point the oligarch did not deny.