Roman Abramovich: Premier League oligarch
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Welcome to good, bad billionaire from the B, B, C world service. Every epo de we pick a billionaire, we find .

out how they .

made their money.

The BBC business at .

and on this episode we have a very well known .

billionaire deed, a hero to Chelsea fans everywhere.

but someone with what I would describe as a colorful past. Yeah.

colorful is one way of putting IT markey. He is a big football fan, likes his boats.

He really does. And he is currently worth a court nine point seven billion .

dollars in roman, a maa vich.

So roman abramovich is fifty eight years old. He's one of the many oligos who made their fortunes from the post soviet privatization of public utilities.

and specifically in oil and aluminium. He got into the latter during the infamous bloody aluminium wars. More on that later.

but for years he was never heard from or seen in public, and a russian newspaper even offered one million robots for a photo of him.

In fact, he became known as the steff oligarch. Behind the scenes, though, he was a powerful figure, allegedly very close to the vladimir putin from the early years of his presidency.

but he did lose seven billion of his assets when they were frozen by the self governing british crown dependency of jersey in the wake of the russia ukraine war. Yeah.

a lot of sanctions applied to a lot of people in russia. And he was caught up in that he became famous in the west when he bought Chelsea football club in two thousand three. I remember that well, people were punching there. So finally.

we've got some money. Finally, the big spenders rode in.

yeah. And in fact, he's kind of set an example for billion years buying football clubs.

Now the club custom a caught two hundred and thirty three million dollars, but then he kept spending. He spent around nine hundred million paying off the club's debt and bringing in very new and very expensive .

player he called chelsey. I remember in those days that football's is not his only passion. He thought to have sixteen yet.

the biggest of which cost to get this four hundred and twenty seven million dollars.

How many yachts is one man need at five hundred thirty three feet? The biggest was then the largest in the world, two helicopter pads, two swimming poles and a disco haul.

And I also had bullet proof windows, a missile detection system and an escape .

submarine that lls I very security conscious, also reported he had a forty strong security team, twenty in the U. K twenty, to help him when traveling at cost him around two point four million dollars per year.

So you might be asking at this point, why does the guy who's just in business need to spend so much on protection, including, remember that escaped submarine yeah.

Well, being a russian oligarch is a pretty dangerous business. Quite a lot of them end up dead and sometimes in suspicious circumstances.

So in this episode we'll try to find out why roman, a grammar which has stayed so rich and so alive for so long.

although could a recent suspected poisoning suggest his luck and his friends might be changing.

Now, before we get into the story is worth saying that tracing the money of russian oligarch .

can be quite tRicky. fantastic. And some brave journalists.

So the biography abram reached the billionaire from nowhere by dominic, mildly increase. Hutchins was especially helpful.

as was a transcript from a twenty twelve british high court case.

That case was brought against roman, a bramah h by former a man known as, quote, the godfather of the criminal.

Yeah, boris barish off ski. Because of the case, roman was forced to tell the well in his own words how he made his fortune.

And in the courtroom, he took the stand and said, I never made any public statements. At least I tried never to make any public statements. I know I don't do IT so well.

I become very nervous. And if you see the internet, it's impossible, i've found, to find any footage of him actually talking.

which is so odd, because his name has loomed so large in the public consciousness, because of his football purchase for so many years.

so nervous public speaker or powerful political Operation. Is he good, bad, or just another billionaire?

Roman ara a. Vich was born in one thousand nine hundred sixty six in Sarah's v and what was then the soviet union in our south western russia?

He had jewish grandparents. Theyd fled to the U. S. S. R. As was then from lizaveta and ukraine during a war.

his mother died when he was only Young from blood poising of an abortion. And his father died two years later in a .

construction accident was offered at three years old. He doesn't call his childhood bad. He said he had the support of an extended family.

He was actually adopted by a Peter uncle leave moving over a thousand miles north to octave .

to live with him. And Richard actually gave bedroom and and slept on the sofa in the living room. And as the only male cousin, roma had a certain letter of status in the family.

but his adoptive dad's job as a supplies manager gave him privileged ed access to food and clothing, some of which leave result on the black Marks, or the family lived comfortably despite the harsh rationing of the time.

In fact, we told that roman d was the first point in his neighborhood to own a western style, settle yer for our Younger audiences. This is something like a SONY walkman that people used to walk around with. Yeah, the museum peace now.

And at the time, I would have made him a very popular person .

in neighboring d and age eight leaves cent roman to moscow to live with these other pernet uncle Abraham, because the capital offered more opportunities, he says, for a business.

Roman studied at a place court school number two hundred and thirty two, which kind of gives you an idea of the peking order there. He was an academic, but he worked hard.

and he was eager to learn. Friends remember efficiency fery and teachers .

remember his uncle. A Abraham was more daunting than most fathers because he rushed to school. The minute romance results were published.

they were big influences on him because a close business associate of romance has commented, the roman is the synthesis of his two uncles from leaping, inheriting, discretion and business acumen from Abraham, altruism and vitality.

Sir Robert left school at seventeen, and he was studying highway engineering at the OCR industrial institute when he was drafted for military service.

Yeah, life was tough in the red army. Roman, though, is remembered as a very social person. He organized a football team, for example, and an amateur group.

and quite common to a lot of our billionaire oris. He was always, always on the lookout for ways to make money. So one fellow soldier, remembering roman coming up with a scheme in which delivery drivers would allow fail to be cycled off from their vehicles and then so to other drivers at a reduced Price.

Yeah, hustling to make a buck is definitely something that's common among our billionaire. One person said of him. He could make money out of thin air .

after leaving the army at twenty roman word as a mechanic moscow, while returning .

to stay before rock out.

It's not something you want to hear. A parent who wants a child to do well financially, but IT doesn't seem like dropping out is a common through .

line around this time. And his personal life, he had made his first wife older, who was a devil sea three years old than him.

Her parents gave them two thousand rubles as a wedding present, which was, at the time, roughly ten months of the average .

russian salary. And they to start a new business, they made rubber ducks and other plastic children's toys.

and soon they were earning three thousand to four thousand rubles a month. So that kind of works up to twenty times the average russians monthly salary.

And we should say here, we often put things in dollar terms, but it's very difficult when IT comes to russian rubles to dollars because there was strict capital controls. IT wasn't not easy to tell how many rubles worth the dollar in those days. That changed a lot over the years.

Roman threw himself into work so much so that augar said he was a reason for that divorce. Just two years later, he says he would get up earlier and go strike to work and not be back until midnight. I was convinced he was a workaholic. IT seemed he loved his business more than he loved me.

To understand the roman and a braveries story, we need to understand what's going on in the civil union, as IT was then. And once again, all for the first time, we're looking at people who have made money as the world around them was changing, sort of jack mary in china, we talked about new bni. In india. Russia is going through some massive changes.

So rewind back to nineteen and eighty five, co golden child became head of the communist party and introduced what was got paris striker or restructuring yeah, to boost the then flagging russian economy.

This was a huge change. And in a way, this mark the end of the cold war. And a lot of people said, this is of arms race of the cold war.

第一， U. S. Is wealth has essentially bankrupted russia, and they realized they had to be a change.

So they're been strict Price controls. But now some businesses could decide for themselves which products they wanted to make, how much to produce and what to charge, which before was basically e yeah.

So roman, among others, began to take advantage of some of these new rules. He traveled between his uncles homes. He would fill the suitcase with western goods, which were coming into moscow, thinks like genes, perfume, chocolate, and then sell them at a profit a thousand miles away in utah.

And then on the sixth of november one thousand hundred and eighty nine, a seismic event happened.

The four, the berlin wall, ninety one, the U. S. S. R, the union socialist soft republics was formally dissolved. Galba huff, resign, and boris, I yell, became present of russia.

And at the start of one thousand nine hundred and ninety two, yeltsin's government removed more Price controls on products.

And this a sudden adoption of the free market and rapid privatization. That key was called shock therapy, designed to joke russia into embracing capitalism. So really.

we talk about the end of the cold war in america, essentially bankrupting russia. But you know, it's not just about money or arms, it's also about ideology, and in this case, american triumph.

yeah. And IT created the past environment for the rise of russian oligarch. Suddenly there was this kind of new frontier to to prosper, basically.

basically the wild west IT was freezing.

I remember that time really well, actually. And within months, roman drama just said to have launched early twenty different businesses, trading timber, sugar, food to repairs, pig breeding, even body guard services.

They'll be needed later. Basically everything .

at the world, many failed, but they offered him a steep business learning curve, and his reputation and his portfolio .

of businesses was growing. But what roman bramah is really wanted .

to get into was oil, yeah, the presume, selling russian produced oil at a discount to traders that was sold in the global market. The profit then went back to the state.

but now profits could go to private Operators. And roman was one of the many people who spotted this potential.

So he had a company called petrol trends, which started with the russia domestic market sourcing oil from a government own refinery, western siberia. He then transported and sold that throughout russia.

It's around this time, which is one thousand nine hundred ninety two, that IT said he was accused in russia of, quote, procuring financial gain by means of fraud. He was also, by the way, only twenty five.

yeah. Now this period was very marked, as you say, there were claims counterclaims and IT alleged he was arrested as the main suspect for stenio consignment of diesel from a train going from okita to moscow, valued around four billion rubles. Exchange rate was moving a lot in those years, so that could be anywhere between nine and thirty five million dollars.

IT is really wild west cowboy stuff. So document detAiling this was shown in a twenty twelve court case and IT was reported in a twenty twenty two panorama episode that he was arrested, but later that this case kind of appeared without a trace.

and his lawyers told the program IT was also misunderstanding and the .

matter was resolved. So over the next few years, he grows his oil business and he launches various companies trading and petroleum products.

Yeah, his network companies quickly becomes one of the launches trillium trading networks in all of .

russia and crucially for his growth, he expands rapidly in an international exports in one .

thousand and ninety three his companies were trading four hundred thousand tons of petro um just a year later that had increased to three million that a six hundred and fifty percent increase within a year .

that's serious numbers and in this own words, roman maa, which became a, quote, first class international negotiator.

So how much is he worth at this point? It's hard to know when you made is very first million. We got some numbers from his own testino in court documents by the mid one thousand nine hundred nineties, he said he was generating around forty million dollars per year through his trading company. Is so in his late twenties, rona Brown successful all trainer. He's almost certainly a multi millionaire.

but he's also about to be introduced to a man who will change the cause of his life and Chelsea foobar club and someone who will end up going head to head with in court.

Enter the scene, boris barish oski a connection hood, the new york times the athletic magazine puts IT turns romen from wheel daily wannabe to the seriously rich.

So who is this man and mental who help roman abramovich become a billionaire? Let's rewind back to december one thousand twenty four and set the scene where a party we're on a yet we're in the caribee. And romance is here as a guest of the president of russia's .

largest privately held bank. Getting vibes of already, roman is introduced to boris spirit of sky. He was a power broker. He was nicknamed godfather of the criminal, apparently even describe himself as one of the most influential oligarchs in russia and a billionaire boot .

billionaire illiana e. Now boris bridge of ski was forty eight compared to romans twenty eight. He was a former car salesman who had made a fortune by capitalizing on the early years of yet son's privatization process.

And burge roscoe was impressed with romans ambitious idea to create this new vertically integrated or company. Vertically integrated remains capable of managing the entire production chain.

The problem was that the companee roman would need were actually owned by the state, and roman had no political connections.

Word he says, I was not a well established in in business figure at that stage. That doesn't reflect whether I had a big business or a small business IT. Just I created little noise around myself.

He moves in silence like the wind.

yeah. And you needed this kind of cover. There's a russian word for IT creature. IT literally means roof. And what IT means is political influence and cover and insurance.

basically. And boris bridge office had that in spades. So he was very close to the president, boris ytn.

in fact, very rosky, had paid for the publication of yeltsin meals, but friend of his dorter help bankrolled his reelection campaign. All of this gave him great access to yEllen in a circle.

and romans, a burge of ski, offering him crea. At the time, bruschi was already known to me as someone who had big political influence in moscow. I realized he could provide me with important contacts. Moreover, I was aware that he was believed to have strong connections to checchi, an elements which exerted a powerful influence in moscow at the time. Now, boris burge of ski has denied any links to organize crime.

But at this time there was real free for all where people were trying to get their hands on what previously had been national assets. There was this gold rush bar. Oski knew of another national asset for sale, the russian oil companies sibi fed. So berry z oscan ve, you remember from that chat on the yacht, had been impressed by road.

When we left, there was this wonderful feeling, but IT was only the beginning of a nightmare.

This is a story that started with a job advert. A ytn are looking for a crew to sell his recently renovated boat from brazil to europe.

For me was gonna be a great adventure and an opportunity to gain a lot of experience.

But when police raided the vessel, discovered drugs.

cocaine hidden under one of the beds.

IT can be .

a key suspect, was miles away.

Everything revoked around .

who's the boss, british guy. Fox, fox.

this is world of secrets from the BBC world service season five, finding mr. Folks, such a world of secrets wherever you get your BBC for costs.

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estimate black friday is coming。 And for the adults in your life who love the coolest toys, well, there's something for them this year too. Martin is the premier craft cocktail maker that automatically makes more than sixty seasonal and classic cocktails each on the thirty seconds at the push of a button. And right now, but teaching is having a huge cycle de sale. You can get one hundred dollars off any cocktail maker or cocktail maker bundle when you spend, if kind of bad, get them bodies at the push of button, make back quality, Cosmos mart, manhattans and more, all in just study seconds, all for a hundred of amazing toys are just for kids. Get one hundred off a cocktail maker when you spend four hundred to cyber monday visit about teaching outcomes as cocktail that B A R T E S I A N dot come flash cocktail.

A bramah has planned to create a big new oil conglomerate could amount ge. The entire production chain of extraction there are refining the selling, and the Sidney deal could make that become a reality.

but the details of any deal between the two men have been disputed, so much so that they .

later went to court. But IT is widely reported and documented in the trial that for substantial cash payments to boris berries or skip a bramah would get his political, passionate ge and influence.

So according to roman himself, he paid burge of sleep between fifty to eighty million dollars a year through the nineties, plus personal expenses that paid for like riffling, things like bojo key's french riviera home chartering yutz in a private jet, even occasionally his girlfriend's credit.

T, B. So I was just off in and five together, a bram of each. And barcy spent months negotiating with the government .

and this would have been a huge deal because the russian state was essentially just having a fire .

sale for their asset. Yeah and the yellow and advice said baris oki was ready to sleep on the cream.

but they had one problem. So at the center of sibneft was an oil processing plant that was run by iven list of IT, a very influential figure in the region. Now they needed to get him on side, but he was actually against the private of the company, and he remained firmly so, even after he received several letters urging him to change his mind.

And then just days before the new sid nett was established by presidential decree, eleven list of IT drowned in a river swimming apparently from a heart attack. According to the official depth report. His driver, the only witness, later died in a fight.

Now, when roman was asked if he was true, the ivan skosh died in quite difficult circumstances. He simply replied, he drowned ultimately.

though, punch line of this story, roman, a brand which takes control of eighty eight percent of for about two hundred and forty million dollars, it's thought he may have put in as little as nineteen million of his own money, with the remained coming from bank loans.

And thanks to his oil trading connections, he soon turned the refinery around in one thousand and ninety five when he first got involved, a sibneft, ed IT, had losses of two hundred and six million dollars. But within two years, IT was making a profit of sixty eight million dollars.

So until now, roman haven't been a public figure. He kept well away from the media. He was the only god no wonder ever heard of. And they wanted seen, they went an even photographs available any time he was reported in the press. They had to use a sketch like the wall street journal.

very old school at the sydney auction captured the media's attention. So IT is getting harder and harder for him to stay out of the spotlight.

In one thousand nine hundred ninety eight, he referred to on russian T. V. As yeltsin's wallet, meaning a good chunk of the money he was paying to boris ba.

Jos ky. Was used for yeltsin's reelection campaign. In this idea of being the president's wallet is something come up with the current president.

And in one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine, one russian newspaper offered a million rubles for a photograph of him. That's around forty thousand dollars.

wow. This blurry photograph was taken that was used for next few years until until bramah paid a photo journeys to take a selection of proper photos for the press.

So as with many of our billion's, roman D. H next looked to diversify his portfolio, and he did that into aluminium.

Yes, this is the thing that makes seriously rich. The competition note to control the area of the metal markets was really fierce. From the mid nineteen ninety russian oligarchs were involved in what was .

called the alien was, now this was an a of meat. It's not a broom. Anything, literally, genuinely.

flink, exactly.

IT was genuine physical conflict. So for instance, when an entrepreneur would buy aluminium smelters, a processing plants, they would become a target for others who hire criminals to pressure them into selling.

Told the BBC he lived under constant threat, the sky cle anatoliy beak. He said, they tried to blow out my car. They shot at me. And they always meant roman was reluctant to get involved, saying every three days someone was being murdered.

But by one thousand and one thousand, nine hundred and nine, he knew some of the key players were keen to sell to get out of the wars, he said, while the level of violence in the industry had to finish somewhat by the late nineties, IT was to a potentially dangerous business, and there was a real need for anyone wishing to get involved to have physical crisis to ensure control and stability. That means roof protection. Remember not understanding that? He said I could see the potential for bringing the business together.

And in two thousand, the year two thousand, he bought controlling stakes in russia, two biggest smelters in cyberia, from estimated six hundred million dollars from a geneva based trading giant called trans metals.

Now, to avoid competition, he then merged companies with another oligarch, oleg deripaska, creating russia. Russian aluminium, which then made IT one of the .

world's biggest metals companies, became a famous darpa ka. Am, had a yet on which he was caught. Lots of U.

K. politicians. And anyway, you create a big think about russian money in british politics.

That's where they're past the I recognize the name yeah anyway.

roman d said of this merger with that I had significantly increased the chance of my investment in the industry would .

be a success to those assessment that the two oligos had seventy five percent of russia's yearly aliminum um output which so is predicted that nearly all of the production would be exported with approximate sales of three point four billion dollars.

Ah there's no evidence they had any hand in the other minimuls all the violence which with you know journalist, bank manager or lending up dead. But one of the outcomes of this drop, asked above age consulting, is that the metal murders came to an end.

One russian journalist name, Kelly oh, said that the blood trail stopped and suggested that perhaps a rama vich in da paka quote maybe more powerful than the gangs state, which is an .

interesting way of putting. He's incredibly minium business in russia, but the political landscape is about to change again in russia.

In nineteen nineteen nine, barsett, an appointed of lladd mir britain as prime minister, and as yet, son was growing weaker duty illness. He eventually vely handed over the business of daily governing to his new pm.

That is twenty five years ago, still there. Yellin then resigned. Putin was elected president in march two thousand.

So as you would expect, roman of bRandy, I wanted to meet glad me a putin, and it's not clear when they met for the first time because he often plays down that relationship. But it's thought that they were introduced in the late nineties through boris burge of ski.

In nineteen nineteen nine, he attended putin's birthday party.

When putin became president, he asked roman drama which, to vet his choices for cabinet.

And he wasn't just involved in politics behind the scenes. In one thousand one thousand nine hundred nine, roman was elected to the state duma as the representative for the chicken taka region, which is a pretty poor part of russia, arctic far east. And in two thousand, and he began governing there, a post he held until two thousand and eight.

Now you might be asking yourself, that seems really random, but to cut, cut does have large reserves of natural resources. A Brown, which company actually controls a small gold mine, dad.

but IT seems IT was more than just a title. He invested over a billion dollars in the region during his government ship, although the were rumors that he made a packed, we ve had him putting to return some of his oran aluminium wealth through development in chicago.

A interestingly, it's been reported that this position gave him immunity from investigations by putin anti monody minister, who had recently been asked to investigate the .

aluminium deal. This is a cycle ellia used off, and he later reported the purchases have not violated and also so fine.

convenient. And IT was in two thousand and one while roman in a rama, which was governor of jakka, that forbes first listed him on their billionaire st. With an estimated network of .

one point four billion dollars. So age thirty four, rouge is a he was the three hundred and sixty third richest person in the world and the fifth richest russian listed.

And he doesn't stop there. Within just a year, his wealth had more than double to three billion dollars, and he had climbed to one hundred and twenty seven richest in the world and become the second richest russian on the planet .

by two thousand and three his oil company received after was worth fifteen billion us. dollars. And rustle had four billion dollars in annual cells, making IT the world's s second largest producer of aluminium.

But as one star rises the most four. And in this case, IT was boris bridge of skies.

Yes, in two thousand and burge oski have fueled with putin and fled russia for london. And by two thousand and one, a brother victim buried osc y had parted ways. He paid berisha osc a lump s sum of one point three billion dollars to cut ties.

Now, interestingly, this biot became increasingly bitter with baja sky taking his former mente and protested to the U. K. High court in twenty twelve in a big trial called verge of c versus a.

bram barofsky claimed a bram Mavis had intimidated him into selling shares in sydney at a fraction of their value and wanted over three billion pounds in damages around and early five billion dollars.

But roman abram, of which actually won this battle in high court, the judge dismissed burge office claims stating there was no evidence of intimidation and said that a ramah, which had been a meticulous sponsible and careful witness.

now a year later, in twenty thirteen, boris burge oki was found dead in his british home. The coroner recorded open verdict following two days of contradictory evidence about the way he was found hanged, but he said he could not prove beyond all reasonable doubt that took his own life or was unlawful fully killed.

Talk about a twenty.

yeah, no coding. That was a big stories you can imagine in teen.

So let's take roman in a rama richer story beyond a billion. What does a billionaire with his money is?

A football club, of course, in two thousand and three, he bought Chelsea, which was a big surprise。 IT was the biggest takeover .

in british football history at that time. Roman abramovich said that buying .

the club had an impact on signaling if money to spend on players and actually having been quite a shadow figure, he was regular on the telly watching Chelsea. You could see that he had a real emotion. He really loved his football.

But some call that thing about buying football, club sports, washing. You get such a high public profile, you're part of something that everyone loves. And therefore, in a way, that kind of issues you from other allegations makes you a mean. Yes, bub.

Around football teams, however, are really expensive. So buying Chelsea costolo about two hundred and thirty three million dollars, and IT was estimated he'd have to cover around one hundred and thirty million in depth that the club already had.

Yeah, but not much when you compared to how much actually is worth. He was worth around fifteen billion at this time. Over the next decade, he would spend big on football acy of break english transfer records and a football finance experts, a goga carmyle said.

A bahama c turned football from a millionaire, placing into a billion years plaything. And IT really started at a whole series of merges. If you think now, basically all these football clubs have very rich ed, foreign wners, liverpool, manchester united, new castle is own by saudi. So he really set the mode of rich foreign owners buying trophy assets like foot clubs.

And is IT right to say that this is around the time, you know, london was becoming home to so many russian oligarch, big russian money. I think at one point I was .

called london grad. There were huge mansions in mayfair. People were buying country houses.

You know, lots of of statedly homes are only being snapped up by russian as a real russian invasion. Big money into the U. K. S.

london. I M, I remember a time when if you walked into play, like ds or selfords, you would have store assistance who would be able to speak russian?

Because that was where the money was spent, and very austens tii spent as well. IT was a incredible display of consumer consumption.

Chelsea in other woods now, fortunately, roman ramadi was able to raise huge funds to buy Chelsea. So three months after buying the club, he sold his shares in Russell to co owner, or like paasma, for one billion .

dollars later, he liquor his biggest assets, the sydney ft. All company. He sold his shares back to the state for thirteen .

billion dollars. This deal meant that within a decade, his initial investment had been .

returned more than a thousand, and he was the eleventh richest person in the world with eighteen billion dollars.

So for the next decade, roman, in a rama, which lived your typical ban football on my life in london? Grad, yeah, but that was about to change.

No, he did live a typical life. I saw him myself, really, in my local newspaper shop, just stuff kington part road. And there he was buying a newspaper, which is rare enough, as is IT.

IT is a physical newspaper, I I, A sorry to say, then came out, and his wife and children, and there I said, why is he just walking around? Where are the body guard? I'm sure they must have been a station walk, street, imported.

Did newspaper people? I did not. I did. I think that, I think that was financial times.

which would make sense. Yes, that would make sense. So how was his life about a change in london? In the late twenty tens, the U. K. Government crackdown on wealthy investors coming to the country after the prizing, a former russian spy, sergey scrapple, in sales.

That was a big moment, and that was a russian state assassinating someone on british soil.

a big moment. So those changes meant that those on investor visas could not will be required to prove the origins of their wealth.

yeah. And in two thousand nineteen, a roman of british investor, these are explored. And then he withdraw his application for a new VISA.

Instead, he became an israeli citizen and moved to television. And then then in twenty twenty one, he was granted european citizenship after being given a portuguese possible.

And of course, then came the russian invasion of ukraine in twenty twenty two that really change things for your average oligarch. The eu. And the U. K. Imposed some quite swinging ing sanctions.

Roman had his assets frozen due to his close ties to the criminal.

something he denies, but leaked papers do reveal evidence that connected a bramah, which, to a forty million dollar secret deal with two men, dobb putin's wallets. Close friends of putin, who held money on assets on his behalf. Back in two thousand and ten, our own front gardener was a part of that investigation.

Now all this had a knock on effect on Chelsea because this restricted the football club from selling tickets, merchandise or entering into new sponsorship deal.

Yeah so if you can't sell tickets because the mony's going to a sanction person, you're in deep do do there. So in a way that forced the sale in twenty twenty two of Chelsea soul ana I, five billion dollars rumpy bought for two hundred and thirty three million paid off a bunch of death. So is made some money on this to a group LED by american billionaire taught bully. But roman didn't .

actually get proceeds from the cell, so the government agreed to allow him to sell the club, even though he was under sanctions on the condition that the money was spent helping victims of the war in ukraine. Obviously.

if you're basic being kind of run out of country because sanctions in your links to put in, what do you got other things to worry about? But I think that having to get rid of Chelsea must have been a big ranch for him. IT was a real baby of his you knew that he could see that he was actually, you know, passionate about the actual football club. He done wonders and Chelsea is selling that must have been a big ranch.

And he also kind of sort of quite off his assets in order to keep funding the club and making IT successful.

right? So he quite love his own money in IT and to the because benefit the financial sanctions on oligos. That time that money remains locked in the U.

K. Bank count frozen, if you like, a between a and the government. How exactly that money .

can be spent and before a chAllenge to the E. U. Sanctions and a statement issued on his behalf, said mister abram a, which does not have the ability to influence the decision making of any government, including russia, and has in no way benefit from the war. Yes, in the war, ukraine.

yeah course. And since that war he's been spending ways to be time in russia, turkey, the U. A, E, where governments have not imposed any sanctions on rational dox.

So where does that leave real man a rama vith today? He spent decades in favor with a crimson in when many of his other olive piers didn't far too well.

Yeah, he still definitely still rich forms list his current network at nearly ten billion us dollars, and Young stakes in huge steel and nickle company still.

but he had a net worth of fourteen point five billion dollars in twenty twenty two, before the channel island, jersey, known for low taxes, throws seven billion dollars of those assets.

yeah. And there is a question mark over his power, his relationship with powers. In the great twenty twenty two, he suffered what's been described as a suspected .

poisoning yeah so at this point he had joined russian and ukrainian peace negotiators .

at talks on the ukraine balus border. Kraut toms expected poisoning, sore eyes, peeling skin and chemical weapons specialists concluded they believe IT was an intentional use of a chemical agent.

Now the bbc's own security correspondent Frank goddard analysis was that, quote, inevitably people will be wondering if this was the work of the glu, russia's military intelligence service, who britain conclude IT IT was behind the nova chocks salesbury poisoning. In 1， there has been no immediate comment from russia and no proof they're responsible, but somebody IT seems wanted to send a warning to those taking part in the peace talks. This was not a lethal dose. IT was a warning.

Gosh, interesting stuff. So there we have IT. There is the story of roman, a map.

Tch, he's always downplayed his connections to the crimson in and of lady mir putin, but we do know that they knew each other quite early on in putin relationships. So we going to have to now decide whether he's good battle. Just another billionaire, our catch grees that will start with absolute wealth.

pretty tty good. So with the increasing number of billion bezos ea, that makes him only two hundred and thirty fifth richest in the world with nearly ten billion. So he's falling quite lot yeah.

In part of this category.

we judge them based on how they spend that money and nothing bigger than buying a football club.

And he got lots of them, and his youth are enormous. At one point, he had the worlds biggest super yard. So i'm going to give him based on conspicious consumption of football franchise. And yet i'm going to give him an eight at a ten.

I'm gona give him a nine out of ten because I mean yachts ten a penny in the billionaire kes but a yet with its missile detection system and escaped submarine I mean, come on, that gets you pretty high in billion years day.

It's proper bond valves there.

right? Proper bond e makes you onder the White cut. Rome the horse.

Okay, so eight from me, nine from you, rags to riches. I think he scores pretty highly on this one. He didn't come from money.

yeah. In fact, I think the times described his story as a uniquely russian story that begins in relative poverty. Remember.

he was an often, yeah often, the three brought up by two uncles in a pretty remote part of russia. We sent to moscow service, this time in the red army. I think this is definitely in eight for me.

I would actually agree. And a lot of billionaire come from humble origins. Very few of them come from what you could describe as but being and often, I mean, doesn't get more kind of change stickers than that.

And also he manage to stay alive as well, which is a love. Impressive thing is not all of them did that is true.

So I think it's an a ten for me too.

k. Vili, as reported by the BBC in twenty twenty three leaked documents, reveal a money trail that seem to link roman bramah age to two men, dobb wallets of vladimir putin that mean they held money and assets on putins behalf.

So mister Brown n. Vich hasn't actually responded to request for comment from the B. B. C. On these allegations.

They think they're putin. Some people estimate he could have a fortune about a hundred two, even two hundred billion dollars, but that money is held by other people on his behalf.

notably roman abm. Vith has also been accused of corruption since the deal with sit, so he's also admitted to paying for berge officiis protection and political influence in the twenty twelve trial. So he argued at the time during that trial that was just how things were done IT in russia .

at the time yeah but journalists continue to argue that EMS as well through some criminality, which he continues to deny. So on villino, I think we're going to have to. School is pretty high.

Yeah, I forval ini. Hang on a second. He's not an arms deal.

not been convicted of anything.

and he having been convicted anything.

So he denies all these claims.

Exactly, he denies all of this stuff. So given the fact we don't have any hard proof of this, there were some allegations. I'm going to give him a seven.

i'll be bother and give him and eight.

you're braver than me. Okay.

let me know if I only start breaking skin rush.

okay? philanthropy? How much money is he given a way what he done for charity?

Yeah, he could redeem mind here.

Well, it's hard to know how much she's given. But in twenty eighteen he reported he had given five hundred million dollars to jewish causes in russians a lot.

He's also reportedly spent one billion dollars on trick ka, where he was the governor for over eight years, and he seems to have done some good in the region.

Analysis based in russia ferry say that the quality of life for those regions, tens of thousands of residents, has skyrocket under his ten.

So when he was intervened in two thousand and one about why he was spending so much money, he said he was, quote, fed up with making money other time called with some of us sort that way. He also explained, I started business early, so maybe that's why i'm bored with that.

So the the board billionaire also, you know Chelsea fans will say he did them a pair of good to say we'll see that as some kind of corporate charity although though the club was worth five billion dollars by the time he sold that, even though he couldn't get to keep the money as the sanctions did they ever win the premier league? In fact, Chelsea have won multiple times, and they've also won the champion's league, which is the top club prize in all the football.

So if you're Chelsea fan, he must be mother theresa.

Exactly so on that. I mean, quite a lot of that's quite a lot he's given away and getting give solid six for that.

I think i'd give him a six out of ten as well. Yeah, I degree with you, but you know I am not revising my score and .

villines OK so power interesting one. I mean, clearly he is how to negotiate with power, clearly, because you don't get rich in post soviet russia without knowing how to handle yourself, because there was a wild west where a lot of people ended up dead.

and also how to handle other people.

right? I would say that he knows how to navigate power, whether he has much himself. There's not much room for any other one of the lady ma putin, I don't think. I think he calls all the shots. And so by comparison, people within russia don't have much power.

So and if the tight turns against you.

IT would turn quite fast. Yeah, okay, only even five for power or no four.

I think I think probably of five. I feel like giving the fact that he used to spend so much time in london. I I think he'd d have quite a lot of power while he was in the U K.

especially as a football club on yeah OK four for me, five for legacy. He really set a trend for billionaire buying football clubs. So he has a legacy of sorts in that sense. Other than that, he will be remembered as the most visible, having tried to be released. Visible, he end up was the most visible of the oligos of that period in london, I think.

which is funny. Think if you ask someone in the U. K. Name a rich russian oligarch, it's a bramah.

In fact.

you know that robbie William sung party like a russian. I think IT was kind of a rama vitch inspired.

okay? So he's got a legacy of being the kind of poster child for russian oligarchs of the mid nineties and Donnaught.

So I think for legacy, it's an eight of ten for me.

It's a seven for me. And then we have to decide as a good, bad or just another billion aire, I think he's got to be bad.

Oh, I mean, obviously he denies all these allegations and claims of corruption, but there's something on the story I think that gives me what I would call bad vives.

I just don't think you've get super rich in post soviet russia and come out quickly, clean and be an Angel.

no. In fact, it's hard to think of a single russian oligarch who has done that.

No, agreed. I mean, some are worse than others, I think. But generally speaking, i've have to say roman and brand, i'm so sorry because you do great things for Chelsea.

but you are a bad billionaire, am not a elsey fan, so I have no compunctions ing that roman brother vich, you are probably a bad billionaire. So who do we have on the next episode?

No slim pickings. This guy has got a vast wealth. He is a .

center billionaire annis worth over a hundred billion dollars.

And for a short time in the two thousands, he edged bill gates out of richest man in the world spot.

and he is also the richest man in ln america.

IT is color slim, good, good, bad. Billionth was produce by hana hofford and Lewis Morris, with additional production support from times and Carry. James cook is the editor, and it's a BBC studios production for BBC world service.

When we left, there was this wonderful feeling, but IT was only the beginning of a nightmare.

This is a story that started with a job advert, a your toner, looking for a crew to sell his recently renovated boat from brazil to europe.

For me, he was going to be a great adventure. Opportunities, gain a lot of experience.

But when police raided the .

vessel and discovered drugs beds.

be a key .

suspect was miles away.

Everything revoked .

around his boss is fox.

This is world of secrets from the B. B. C. World service season five, finding mister fox search for world of secrets wherever you get your BBC pod costs.

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