In December 2011, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s superyacht, Eclipse, was chartered out to a British Virgin Islands-based company for the festive season.
But photos from Christmas Day that year revealed Abramovich himself aboard the yacht, enjoying the warm Caribbean sun.
This charter arrangement was part of a larger, years-long strategy designed to evade taxes, recently uncovered in an investigation by the BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
The scheme involved portraying Abramovich’s fleet of luxury yachts as part of a commercial leasing business, allowing him to avoid paying millions of euros in VAT on both the purchase and running expenses of the yachts.
“There has been tax evasion,” said Tommaso Di Tanno, an Italian tax lawyer and professor. “This is criminal activity.”
Abramovich’s legal team responded by stating that he “always obtained independent professional tax and legal advice” and acted in compliance with it. The billionaire, who divides his time between Istanbul, Tel Aviv, and Sochi, was sanctioned by the UK in 2022 due to his close connections with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Over the course of the 2000s, Abramovich acquired five luxury yachts, including the 115-meter Pelorus, which he reportedly lent to Chelsea footballer John Terry for his honeymoon in 2007, and Eclipse, once the world’s largest private yacht, valued at around $700 million.
The full extent of the tax avoidance scheme was revealed through a leak of over 400,000 files and 72,000 emails from MeritServus, a corporate service provider based in Cyprus.
These documents outlined how Abramovich’s business empire was managed through a complex network of companies, with many owned by trusts where Abramovich was the beneficiary.
The leaked files also detailed how Abramovich used the company Blue Ocean Yacht Management in Cyprus to lease the yachts to firms in the British Virgin Islands. These firms, which appeared independent, were in fact controlled by Abramovich himself, helping him evade VAT obligations.
This discovery is part of the Cyprus Confidential investigation, an ongoing effort by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Previous reports have also uncovered Abramovich’s financial ties to some of Putin’s closest allies, one of whom is accused of holding assets linked to the Russian president’s wealth.
