Abramovich transfers $4bn worth of assets to children to evade sanctions - Guardian

This is reported by the Guardian with reference to documents from Cypriot offshore companies.

The rapid reorganization of the oligarch's finances just three weeks before the war, as a result of which his children became the formal owners of funds worth at least $4 billion, became known from numerous documents of MeritServus, a Cyprus-based company that manages these offshore funds of Abramovich. These files were shared with journalists by an unnamed source.

The reorganization of assets took place in early February, shortly before Abramovich, being a man close to Putin, came under international sanctions in connection with Russian military aggression.

Earlier media reported that the oligarch's children, all Russian citizens, the youngest of whom is 9 years old, became the beneficiaries of two funds, but the latest documents, according to the newspaper, show that the scale of the reorganization of the oligarch's assets is much more significant and may indicate Abramovich's attempt to avoid freezing or even confiscation of his huge fortune.

In addition to the 10 funds, the oligarch's children became owners of other various assets, including yachts, helicopters and planes.

Abramovich himself is under sanctions of the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada, but not the USA, although the US Department of Justice last year confiscated two of his planes, citing that they were used to violate sanctions imposed on Moscow.

Abramovich himself and the MeritServus company refused to answer the newspaper's questions about the reorganization of his finances.

Roman Abramovich, who has passports of Russia, Israel and Portugal, categorically denies that he has financial ties with the Kremlin, and even filed a lawsuit to overturn the EU decision to impose sanctions on him.

In mid-December, Canada began the process of arresting and confiscating Abramovich's assets.