The UK government has imposed sanctions on Chelsea football club director Eugene Tenenbaum in an attempt to seize up to £10bn in assets.
The UK said it would extend sanctions to Tenenbaum and David Davidovich, another close associate of Abramovich, because the oligarch transferred billions of dollars in assets to the couple when Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Foreign Office said the sanctions would “freeze assets linked to the couple estimated at up to £10 billion in total – the largest asset freeze in UK history”. The ministry said the asset freeze would “prevent those assets from being repatriated to Russia and used to fund Putin’s war machine.”
“We are pulling the ratchet on Putin’s war machine and targeting those closest to the Kremlin,” Secretary of State Liz Truss said. “We will continue with sanctions until Putin fails in Ukraine. Nothing and nobody is off the table.”
Britain said the sanctions were coordinated with Jersey, which yesterday froze Abramovich’s £5.4 billion fortune.
Abramovich was hit with British sanctions on March 10 after ministers accused him of having “clear ties” to Putin’s regime and belonging to a group of wealthy Russian businessmen who have “blood on their hands.” He has denied having close ties to Putin.
However, the UK has not seized any of Abramovich’s British properties, which include a £120million mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens, just behind the royal palace. His family has amassed a UK property collection worth more than £250million, which includes around 70 houses, buildings and land. Britain are forcing him to sell Chelsea FC, which he bought for around £140m in 2003.
Company records show that Tenenbaum took control of Evrington Investments Ltd, an Abramovich-affiliated investment company, on February 24, immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Abramovich was previously listed as the “beneficial owner” of Cyprus-based Ervington, according to filings in London and Amsterdam. The company has invested in at least eight companies, including Russia’s leading search engine, Yandex.
Also on the first day of the invasion, Abramovich transferred control of another investment vehicle, Norma Investments, to Davidovich. The Foreign Office said Davidovich, described by Forbes magazine as “Abramovich’s much lesser-known right-hand man,” “acquired Evrington Investments from Tenenbaum in March 2022.”
The men will be subject to asset freezes as well as transport sanctions, meaning any ship or aircraft owned, chartered, controlled or operated by them could be arrested if it enters the UK.
Tenenbaum, 57, was born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union and has been on the Chelsea board for 19 years. Previously, he was head of corporate finance at Sibneft, an oil company sold by Abramovich in 2006.
He has previously described sanctions against Abramovich as “unfair”. The Guardian has reached out to Tenenbaum and Davidovich for comment.