Law Officers' Department "unable to comment" on Abramovich investigation

Jersey’s Law Officers’ Department is remaining guarded about the current stage of an investigation into sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich – despite connected legal proceedings making national headlines earlier this week.

Responding to questions from Express, the Department said that it was “unable to comment on live investigations”.

It follows a report by the Guardian that Jersey authorities have been examining Swiss banking records, as part of efforts to investigate alleged money-laundering linked to proceeds of the billionaire’s historic sale of stakes in Russian oil company Sibneft – as well as asset transfers relating to suspected sanctions breaches following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Law Officers’ Department is unable to comment on live investigations
Law Officers’ Department

Lawyers for Mr Abramovich have denied the allegations, reportedly telling the Guardian that no charges had been brought against their client and that “the Jersey court has in fact confirmed that there are no criminal proceedings against our client pending before the Jersey courts”.

It is not the first time that the island has been subject to headlines involving Mr Abramovich.

In 2023, the States police were ordered to pay tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees to lawyers representing parties with alleged links to the oligarch after carrying out unlawful searches.

At the time, then-Chief Minister Kristina Moore commissioned a review after it emerged that search warrants – used by police officers seconded to the Economic Crime and Confiscation Unit to raid two properties in April 2022 – were obtained unlawfully.

Pictured: More than $7bn-worth of assets suspected to be connected to Mr Abramovich were frozen through a Royal Court order known as a ‘saisie judiciaire’.

The raids preceded a freeze of more than $7bn-worth of assets suspected to be connected to Mr Abramovich, through a Royal Court order known as a ‘saisie judiciaire’.

The recent Guardian article described the island as “one of the tax havens from which Abramovich managed his fortune, using a network of offshore companies and trusts”.

His financial connections to the island had previously been highlighted by Express‘s sister publication, the Jersey Evening Post.

The newspaper also reported in 2018 that Mr Abramovich had been granted high-net-worth residency rights.