The Russian oligarch and former owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich, bought a Gulfstream jet from a company in Dublin in 2015 using a complex web of companies and financing transactions, leaked documents show.
The jet, which was manufactured in 2014, was bought for $68.8 million (€64.3m) by a company in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) called Clear Skies Flights Ltd from Soldano Ltd, with an address in Dublin. Soldano was owned by a French businessman, Michel Reybier, and has since been dissolved.
The leaked documents associated with the deal were shared with The Irish Times as part of a project called Cyprus Confidential, organised by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The project involves more than 3 million leaked documents from six financial service providers in Cyprus.
Included in the leaked documents are ones setting out the complex steps by which the aircraft would be purchased from Soldano, which had an agreement with Gulfstream dating back to 2008 for the delivery of a G650 jet. It is understood there are long waiting lists for such aircraft.
The documents show that in 2014 Rothschild bank in Luxembourg entered into an agreement with a British Virgin Islands company associated with Abramovich called Conibair Holdings whereby Conibair agreed to deposit $61.5 million with Rothschild Bank and the bank in turn agreed to issue a loan to Soldano that would be used by the Irish company to buy the jet. The bank was to receive commissions in return for the transactions.
Also agreed was the deposit of $5.5 million by Conibair with a lawyer in Geneva, who was to act as an escrow agent during the sale. The jet was to be delivered by Soldano to Clear Skies in Guernsey in the Channel Islands, where Conibair had engaged legal counsel.
At the same time Conibair entered into an agreement with Global Jet Luxembourg, an aircraft managing business, whereby Global Jet would manage and operate the aircraft for the Abramovich company. The agreements, which said Conibair had “secured the quiet enjoyment” of a Gulfstream jet, said Global would be paid €14,000 per month for its services, as well as further payments depending on the number of flight hours per month. Conibair would also pay costs, including maintenance, crew salaries, and other expenses incurred by Global. The jet was registered in Luxembourg.
A register in the United States says the Gulfstream jet is now registered there and owned by Flexjet, a shared ownership private aircraft business. A Flexjet spokeswoman said it bought the jet in July 2021 but did not say from who. It is not known when Clear Skies sold the aircraft.
[ Leaked Roman Abramovich documents raise fresh questions for Chelsea FCOpens in new window ]
[ Roman Abramovich had significant investments in Ireland before sanctionsOpens in new window ]
Clear Skies, which is now resident in Jersey, is ultimately owned by a Cypriot trust called the Europa Trust. The leaked documents show that Abramovich was initially the sole beneficiary of the trust but that on February 4th, 2022, members of his family were added as beneficiaries. On February 24th, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and the following month Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK and the EU.
In the wake of the invasion the US introduced restrictions on the export of aircraft to Russia that were owned by Russians or the Russian state. In June 2022 a court in New York issued a seizure order to the FBI for a Luxembourg-registered Gulfstream jet manufactured in 2020 that was owned by Clear Skies Flights Ltd, for contravening the restrictions.
The New York court was told flight records showed the Gulfstream jet flew from Istanbul to Moscow, on or about March 12th, 2022, to Tel Aviv the next day, then to Istanbul, and then back to Moscow on March 15th.
The jet had been bought by Clear Skies for approximately $60 million in March 2020, the court was told by the FBI. The representatives who acted for Clear Skies, the agency said, “were individuals associated with one of Abramovich’s investment vehicles, MHC Services Ltd, with an address associated with Chelsea Football Club, the professional English soccer club that Abramovich then owned”.
The same court also granted a seizure order against a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that flew between Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates to Moscow, on March 4th, 2022, and then back to Dubai on the same day. The Boeing was owned by an offshore company called Wenham that was ultimately owned by the Europa Trust, the court was told.
“In or about 2018,” the FBI told the court, “after Wenham purchased the Boeing, it was flown from the United States to Europe to be customised into what is reported to be one of the world’s most expensive private airplanes, worth approximately $350 million”.
