Britain threatens Abramovich with court action to have £2.5 billion from Chelsea sale go to Ukraine
The British government is threatening to sue former Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich to ensure that money from the sale of the club is used for humanitarian aid in Ukraine, the BBC reports.
The £2.5 billion in proceeds from the sale of the football club were frozen in a British bank account after Abramovich was hit with sanctions over Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
The UK government wants the money to go towards humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but Abramovich says it should go to "all victims of the war in Ukraine", including those who suffered in Russia.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lemmy said: "We are leaving the door open for negotiations, but we are fully prepared to go to court if necessary."
They said they wanted to "ensure that the people suffering in Ukraine can benefit from these proceeds as soon as possible," adding that "the government is determined that the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club will be directed towards humanitarian purposes in Ukraine following Russia's illegal full-scale invasion."
"We are deeply disappointed that we have not yet been able to reach agreement with Mr Abramovich on this," British officials said.
Abramovich, who is linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin (he denies this), received special permission to sell the club in 2022 on the condition that he does not receive any benefit from the deal.
Formally, he does not have access to the money due to sanctions, but it still legally belongs to him.
At the time of the sale of the club, Abramovich promised to transfer the proceeds to a fund to support "all victims of war", but a specific mechanism has not yet been created.
- In May 2022, Abramovich, under pressure from sanctions , sold Chelsea for $2.9 billion to a consortium of investors led by American billionaire Todd Bely.
- In January 2024, it became known that the British Parliament was calling for the transfer of $2.9 billion from the sale of Abramovich's Chelsea to Ukraine.
