Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, a close friend of Putin, allegedly invested a lot of money in well-known German startups. Abramovich was hit with EU sanctions in March 2022 and his money invested in Europe is to be frozen. Data leak of more than 400,000 documents reveals financial maze of transactions. The data leak was at the disposal of the German radio station SWR, according to Tagesschau.de.

Since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine 16 months ago, investigators around the world have been scrambling to uncover the assets of Russian oligarchs, who are considered part of Russia’s power apparatus and should be targeted.

About the former owner of FC Chelsea

Abramovich is an oligarch with Russian, Israeli and Portuguese citizenship. From 2000 to July 2008, he was the governor of the Chukchi region of Russia. He is considered the richest Israeli and Portuguese, as well as one of the richest people in the world. He got rich on the basis of the privatization of some Russian state-owned enterprises, also taking advantage of the bankruptcy of the Yukos oil concern in 2006.

Abramovich bought the English football club “Chelsea” in 2003 for 150 million pounds. Last summer he sold it for £4.25 billion to an American consortium. It is considered the most expensive purchase in the history of sports.

Roman Abramovich refused to repay the loan to the London club, which, according to the media, would amount to 1.5 billion pounds. According to his statements, quoted by Welt.de, the profit from the sale was to be distributed to a charity fund for the benefit of victims of the war in Ukraine.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich was Russia’s representative at the 2022 talks between Ukraine and Russia.

Money from German startups

The data leak was obtained by SWR from the US transparency organization, DDOS Secrets, and has been under investigation for several months. The material includes a list of more than 2,500 customers, e-mails, notarial documents, copies of passports and bank documents. In addition, extracts from the German commercial register suggest that Abramovich may still hold shares in at least three German development companies despite the sanctions.

As SWR reports, based on the confidential documents of the Cypriot asset management company MeritServus, it appears that Roman Abramovich’s money went to a total of five German companies. The oligarch was a MeritServus client until at least the end of 2022. The investment company MeritServus has been on the British sanctions list since April this year for working for Abramovich.

Tracing hidden assets is difficult because basic information, such as the true identity of the company owner, is sometimes unavailable: “The financial market is still a black box,” said money laundering expert Christoph Trautwetter of the Fiscal Justice Network (Netzwerk Steuergerechtigkeit). . According to Trautwetter, many sanctions have failed.

Due to the lack of transparency, it is unclear whether Abramovich’s money is still active in Auto1, a Berlin-Kreuzberg startup that claims to be Europe’s largest online platform for car dealers. Abramovich’s offshore company Ervington owned shares in Auto1 in 2020. This can be found in the list of shareholders of the startup.

A spokeswoman for Auto1 confirms that the firm has been bought by “target companies”. “It was many years before the first sanctions.” In the meantime, however, there is only “limited information” about shareholders, as the company has been listed on the stock exchange since February 2021. The spokesperson also says that there is an obligation to report voting rights only for owners of more than 3 shares. % of company shares.

In Auto1’s 2021 shareholder list, seven of the 35 shareholders can be found with “Target” in their name. Abramovich’s company, Ervington Ltd., is named as a “party” in a document available to SWR that lists the target companies. Each individual participation remains below the three percent threshold.

The leaked MeritServus documents show that Abramovich has also invested in other Berlin-based startups. Global media company Showheroes, which also provides video for Spiegel and Funke Mediengruppe, is said to have received the same money as Auto1 through an investment from an offshore firm. In this case, a company named Innes Worldwide Holdings Limited was identified.

According to a 2019 document obtained by SWR, the CEO of MeritServus allegedly told the Showheroes founder that “Mr. Roman Abramovich is the ultimate beneficiary of Innes Worldwide Holdings Limited.” Abramovich’s company also bought shares in three smaller app startups.

One company that continues to be associated with Abramovich’s investments is Target Global (a venture capital firm), which was founded in Moscow a decade ago and, according to its website, is now based across the street from the Berlin Palace. Target Global is touting investments in more than 100 German startups, including online insurance broker WeFox, which is also a major sponsor of Bundesliga soccer club Union Berlin.

When asked by SWR, the spokeswoman denied that Abramovich invested in Target Global Holding Limited. However, leaked documents show that in 2020, Abramovich provided a subsidiary of Target Global with a loan worth about $15 million.

In addition, the oligarch is reported to have increased the loan to around 15 million euros for investments in 2021 through a company called Target Global Advisors (TGA). According to the documents, she officially works as a financial advisor at Target Global Holding. The cash flow is detailed in a written agreement between TGA and Abramovich’s other offshore company.

To the attention of the European Prosecutor’s Office?

Experts such as Christian Trautwetter see minority stakes as a problem for sanctions: “Sometimes minority stakes worth millions don’t even need to be reported. Therefore, it is very likely that Russian oligarchs still own shares in German companies without being identified. And it wouldn’t even be illegal,” says Trautwetter.

Sebastian Fiedler, a Bundestag expert on money laundering and sanctions for the SPD, told SWR that “the data leak shows how important tax havens are for oligarchs to invest their money in German companies.” “These tax havens do more damage than the guns themselves. However, we allow them,” he added.

“Many EU countries have taken their unfortunate position when it came to applying sanctions,” Fiedler also said. Therefore, he asks to expand the powers of the European Prosecutor’s Office.