The ex-owner of the English Chelsea invested €117 million in the Dutch club through the companies of Alexander Chigirinsky

Roman Abramovich secretly funded Vitesse

Former Chelsea owner
Roman Abramovich secretly participated in the purchase of the Dutch football club Vitesse and financed it for several years after the transaction. This became known from the leaked documents of the Cypriot company MeritServus, writes The Guardian.

Documents seen by the publication and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) show that the “secret funding” was at least 117 million euros, which passed through a chain of offshore companies. Journalists call this amount “a huge investment” for a club like Vitesse, whose total turnover in 2014-2015 was 14 million euros. Possible links between Abramovich and Vitesse have been repeatedly reported. The Royal Netherlands Football Association has twice investigated Chelsea’s relationship with Vitesse, in 2010 and 2015, but both times failed to identify any links between the businessman and the Dutch club. The owners of Vitesse and London Chelsea denied any connection between them.

Roman Abramovich

The first investigation was connected with the purchase of Vitesse by a former Georgian footballer Merab Jordania in 2010 year. However, at the time, the Dutch Football Association did not find anything that would contradict the rules of the deal. At the same time, the Russian the Sport-Express newspaper then wrotethat, according to her information, Abramovich became the real buyer of the club. Jordania, after buying the team, confirmed that Abramovich is his friend, but denied the involvement of the billionaire in the purchase of Vitesse.

Sport-Express and other sports media assumed that the Dutch club would become, to some extent, a farm club for the London team: players would be sent to Vitesse until they were ready to play for Chelsea. So then it happened. For example, in 2010, Serbian striker Nemanja Matic, who at that moment belonged to Chelsea, played for Vitesse on loan. Chelsea graduate Mason Mount, who now plays for the club’s first team, also spent a season on loan in the Netherlands.

The second investigation began in 2014, when Jordania sold the club to Abramovich’s business partner. Alexander Chigirinsky. Jordania toldthat Vitesse wanted to acquire one player to strengthen the team in order to break into the Champions League, but “suddenly London intervened.” According to him, if the Dutch club were successful, both teams would come to the attention of UEFA due to close cooperation. Chelsea denied Jordania’s accusations. The Guardian notes that the Georgian businessman later withdrew his comments.

In early 2018, Vitesse was headed by the former coach of the Russian national team Leonid Slutsky. He deniedthat Abramovich was involved in his employment in the Dutch club.

According to the leaked documents, Abramovich likely financed Vitesse’s expenses by extending a string of loans worth at least €117 million by the end of 2015. The Guardian writes that loan agreements and other documents confirm that the company Marindale Trading, registered in the British Virgin Islands and owned by Chigirinsky, financed the purchase of the club and the team itself. At the same time, Marindale itself received a number of multimillion-dollar loans that were processed in various tax havens.

Alexander Chigirinsky and Marina Granovskaya

In August 2010, Ovington Worldwide, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, lent 20 million euros to Trigonia Anstalt, a company registered in Liechtenstein and allegedly linked to Chigirinsky. Ovington Worldwide was owned by another British Virgin Islands company, Electus Investments, which was controlled by the Sara Trust. Journalists name Abramovich as the only beneficiary of the Sara Trust, who, therefore, was the ultimate beneficiary of Ovington. On the same day that Ovington loaned 20 million euros to Trigonia, another company associated with Chigirinsky – Limburg Holdings, registered in Belize – provided a loan to Marindale Trading. Ten days later, Marindale itself lent €20 million to Merab Jordania, which was used to purchase Vitesse. As noted by The Guardian, this loan more than covered the agreed purchase price of the club, which was 6 million euros and then increased to 8 million.

Financing scheme for FC Vitesse through offshore companies

Over the next three years, while Jordania owned the Dutch club, five loans worth millions of euros were issued, all according to the same scheme, the journalists say. First, Ovington, whose beneficiary the Guardian calls Abramovich, lent money to Trigonia, a company associated with Chigirinsky, then Limburg Hodings transferred money to Marindale Trading, which transferred exactly the same amount to Jordania’s company for Vitesse. All this happened almost always on the same day. “In these series of loans, the documents do not show that Trigonia transferred the money to Limburg, who then lent it to Marindale. But the documents and the coincidence of dates and figures convincingly indicate that the money came from Abramovich’s Ovington company through companies associated with Chigirinsky to Vitesse, ”the publication says.

After Zhordania sold the club in 2013, and Chigirinsky officially became the owner of Vitesse, this scheme continued to work, only Trigonia was no longer included in the chain, The Guardian notes. Ovington lent the money directly to Limburg, which provided loans to Marindale, which in turn transferred the same amount to the Vitessa holding company. The last time, according to the documents, the money was transferred in December 2015.

Jordania told The Guardian that Abramovich and Chigirinsky were friends of his who loaned him money when he needed it for Vitesse. “It was my personal project and they supported me when I bought the club with my own money. And then, if sometimes the money was not enough, I used the money of my friends, first of all Roman Abramovich, Chigirinsky, ”said Zhordania, adding that the money was lent to him personally, and not directly to the club.

A spokesperson for Vitesse stated that between 2010 and 2016, the club’s holding company received €136.6 million in loans from Marindale Trading and then invested in the club in the form of additional capital. “Vitesse is not aware of any loans from companies owned by Chigirinsky and Abramovich,” a club spokesman said.

Chelsea lawyers told reporters that since the club now has a new owner, all questions related to Abramovich should be asked to the Russian businessman himself. Abramovich’s lawyer declined to comment. Chigirinsky did not respond to a request for comment.