Abramovich Evaded Millions in Tax with Superyacht Leasing Scheme

A year after Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich acquired his superyacht, Eclipse, in 2011, it appeared he wasn’t planning to use it over the Christmas period.

Official records show the yacht had been chartered by a company based in the British Virgin Islands.

However, photos from Christmas Day that year show Abramovich enjoying the Caribbean sun aboard Eclipse, with its distinctive “E” logo visible behind him.

This charter arrangement was part of a decade-long scheme to mislead tax authorities, uncovered by a joint investigation between the BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

The strategy falsely portrayed Abramovich’s fleet of luxury yachts as part of a commercial leasing operation, allowing him to evade millions of euros in VAT on both the purchase and operational costs of the vessels.

“There has been tax evasion,” said Italian tax lawyer and professor Tommaso Di Tanno. “This is criminal.”

In response to the findings, Abramovich’s legal team stated that he “always obtained independent expert professional tax and legal advice” and “acted in accordance with it.” The billionaire, who has reportedly divided his time between Istanbul, Tel Aviv, and Sochi, was sanctioned by the UK in March 2022 due to his ties to Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Throughout the 2000s, Abramovich acquired five luxurious yachts involved in the scheme, including the 115-meter Pelorus, which he famously lent to Chelsea footballer John Terry for his honeymoon in 2007. Eclipse, once the world’s largest private yacht at 162.5 meters and valued at an estimated $700 million, was also part of the operation.

Details of the tax-dodging scheme were revealed through over 400,000 files and 72,000 emails leaked from a Cypriot corporate service provider, MeritServus. The documents outline how Abramovich’s businesses were managed through a network of companies, many of which were owned by trusts in which he was the beneficiary.

The investigation has exposed how Abramovich’s advisers orchestrated the yachts’ leasing arrangements through a Cypriot company called Blue Ocean Yacht Management. The yachts were then chartered out to various entities based in the British Virgin Islands that appeared independent but were actually under Abramovich’s control.

These revelations are part of an ongoing series of reports from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Cyprus Confidential investigation, which has already uncovered Abramovich’s financial links to some of Putin’s closest allies, including one accused of holding the Russian president’s wealth.