Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich secretly financed the Dutch football club Vitesse and was involved in its purchase when he was the owner of Chelsea. The Guardian writes about this, referring to documents from the leak of the offshore Cypriot provider MeritServus. According to these data, the businessman invested more than 150 million euros in the club.
Documents seen by The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism show that the clandestine funding amounted to at least 117 million euros and was carried out through a chain of offshore companies. It's a huge investment considering the club's total turnover for the entire 2014-15 season was just €14m, according to The Guardian.
The first suspicions about the connection of the Dutch club with the Russian businessman appeared in 2010, when the former Georgian football player Merab Zhordania became the owner of Vitesse. In 2013, Zhordania left the club and Russian businessman Alexander Chigirinsky became its leader. In 2014, Jordania appeared to hint that Chelsea were playing a role in managing Vitesse, the Guardian notes. Then he was outraged that the Dutch club was not allowed to strengthen their team to enter the Champions League. He stated that London did not want this. But later he retracted his words.
The Royal Netherlands Football Association conducted two investigations to establish a connection between Chelsea and Vitesse, in 2010 and 2015, but failed to find anything both times.
The media suggested that players would be sent to Vitesse who were not yet ready to play for Chelsea. In 2010, Serbian striker Nemanja Matic, who at that time belonged to Chelsea, played for Vitesse on loan.
Documents reviewed by journalists confirm that Marindale Trading, registered in the British Virgin Islands and owned by Chigirinsky, financed the purchase of the club and the team itself. At the same time, Marindale itself received a number of multimillion-dollar loans that were processed in various tax havens.
According to The Guardian, Abramovich gave loans according to a certain scheme. In August 2010, Ovington Worldwide, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, loaned 20 million euros to Trigonia Anstalt, a company associated with Chigirinsky. Ovington Worldwide was owned by another company from the British Virgin Islands – Electus Investments. That, in turn, was controlled by the Sara Trust, whose sole beneficiary was Abramovich. On the same day that Ovington loaned 20 million euros to Trigonia, another company associated with Chigirinsky – Limburg Holdings, registered in Belize – provided a loan to Marindale Trading. Ten days later, Marindale transferred the money to Jordania's company, which he used to buy the football club.
Over the next three years, while Jordania owned the Dutch club, five multi-million dollar loans were made. All loans were taken in the same way.
After Zhordania sold the club in 2013, and Chigirinsky officially became the owner of Vitesse, this scheme continued to work, only Trigonia was no longer included in the chain, The Guardian notes. Ovington lent the money directly to Limburg, which provided loans to Marindale, who transferred the same amount to the Vitessa holding company. The last such transfer was in December 2015.
A spokesperson for Vitesse stated that between 2010 and 2016, the club's holding company received €136.6 million in loans from Marindale Trading and then invested in the club in the form of additional capital.
Roman Abramovich has owned Chelsea since 2003. At the end of May 2022, the club came under the control of a consortium led by American businessman Todd Boely.