How did he get it? See A Partial History of Roman Abramovich at bottom of this page, compiled by Axis of Logic

Roman's empire: where Abramovich spends his billions
by Ciar Byrne, The Independent (UK)

Houses, jets, yachts, cars � and now paintings. As the oligarch is revealed to have bought �60m of art, Ciar Byrne uncovers what he spends his billions on.

Monday, 19 May 2008

Triptych by Francis Bacon which sold for 43 million pounds in New York.

The art

Roman Abramovich (right) has been revealed by The Art Newspaper to be the mystery buyer who bought Francis Bacon's Triptych (1976) for $86.3m (�44m) at Sotheby's New York last week, as well as splashing out $33.6m on Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (1995), at Christie's. Both works made auction history, the Bacon achieving the highest price for a postwar work of art and Freud becoming the most expensive living artist at auction, taking the title from Jeff Koons. It is believed the Russian tycoon purchased both works to display at his London home. But his newfound interest seems to be inspired chiefly by his girlfriend, Daria "Dasha" Zhukova, pictured below, who is opening a gallery in Moscow. The Centre for Contemporary Culture Moscow will open in September at a bus depot designed by Konstantin Melnikov, with a retrospective of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Amy Winehouse, pictured bottom, is reported to have been offered �1m to perform at the launch.

The properties

In the eyes of Abramovich, when it comes to homes, be they city pads, rural retreats or seaside getaways, you can never have too many.

The tycoon owns a country estate at Fyning Hill, near Rogate, West Sussex, which he bought for �12m in 1999 from the Australian media magnate Kerry Packer. The 420-acre estate includes a seven-bedroom house, two polo pitches, stables for 100 horses, a tennis court, a rifle range, a trout lake, a go-kart track, an indoor pool and Jacuzzi and a plunge pool. He reportedly ordered in 20,000 grouse and pheasants to indulge his passion for shooting.

In 2004, he was reported to have added the Chateau de la Cro� on the French Riviera to his portfolio for �15m. The 12-bedroom villa, on the exclusive Cap d'Antibes between Nice and Cannes, was once the residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who held lavish receptions there. Built for an English aristocrat in Victorian style in 1927, the property sits next door to the Villa Eilenroc, built in 1867 by Charles Garnier, the designer of the Paris Opera. Previous owners include the Belgian King Leopold II, Aristotle Onassis and Greta Garbo.

Last month he bought Wildcat Ridge, a mansion near Aspen, Colorado, from Leon Hirsch, former head of the medical firm US Surgical, for $36m (�18m). The 14,300 sq ft house sits in 200 acres of land rising 1,000ft above Snowmass Village.

It was reported last month that Abramovich planned to build the most expensive private residence in Britain, a �150m mansion in Knightsbridge.

The football

In 2003, Abramovich bought Chelsea Football Club for �150m and overnight went from being a relativeunknown in the UK to one of the most scrutinised men in the country. He is reckoned to have invested some �500m in Chelsea with the aim of making it the number one club in the world by 2014, including building a new, state-of-the-art training headquarters in Surrey. He has made a series of controversial signings such as the Ukrainian striker Andrei Shevchenko, bought from AC Milan in 2006 for a British record of �30m, and Joe Cole, poached from West Ham for �6.6m. In September 2007, the Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, whom Abramovich had recruited, quit to be replaced by the former Israel coach Avram Grant. Having missed out on the Premier League title this season, Grant's position is nowlooking weaker.

In 2004, it emerged that Abramovich also had links with the Russian side CSKA Moscow through the oil company Sibneft, in which he had a 73 per cent stake, which struck a three year sponsorship deal with the club.

The toys

The Russian billionaire owns a fleet of yachts, nicknamed "Abramovich's navy". His super-yacht, the 377ft Pelorus, has a staff of 40, a helicopter, helipad and a cinema. Worth �100m, it is usually moored in Malta � Abramovich prefers to keep his boats in the Mediterranean, although he can sometimes be spotted in the Caribbean. His other yachts include the Sussurro and Ecstasea, while in 2006 he gave Le Grand Bleu to a business associate. According to reports, he will soon add the world's largest private yacht to his fleet, the 550ft, �200m Eclipse, which is said to have two helipads, six guest suites, five VIP suites and a 5,000 sq ft owner's cabin, as well as an aquarium, a disco, a spa and a half-indoor, half-outdoor pool.

Abramovich is also reported to own not one but two submarines. His first, a 118ft Seattle 1000, commissioned from the leading manufacturer US Submarines, cost �13m to buy and a further �1m a year to run. With two deck levels, separate living areas for guests and crew, dining rooms and staterooms, the boat is capable of diving to a depth of 1,000ft and can remain submerged for two weeks. He is said to have a second sub on order from US Submarines, a smaller 65ft Nomad 1000, which cost �3m and will dock on the Eclipse.

On land, Abramovich owns a �1m Ferrari FXX racing car, and in the air he has a Boeing 767, known as The Bandit thanks to the design by the cockpit. Originally designed to seat 360 people, it was refitted with a luxury interior, including a two-level bedroom, a lounge, offices and a kitchen and crew area. It also has an anti-missile system.

The businesses

Abramovitch, 41, is estimated by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of $23.5bn (�12bn). Having sold his stake in the Russian oil company Sibneft to the state-owned energy giant Gazprom for $13bn in 2005, he is now the main owner of private investment company Millhouse Capital, which has diverse interests, including a 41.4 per cent stake of Russia's largest steelmaker, Evraz Group, and a 40 per cent stake in the UK mining company Highland Gold, which owns gold deposits in Chukotka, the state of which Abramovich has been governor since 2000 (despite tendering a letter of resignation to Vladimir Putin, which was rejected). The company also invests in real estate, pharmaceuticals and consumer products. Reports that Abramovich recently invested in Neo Vita, Russia's first clinic for the super-rich in Moscow, have been denied.

The others

In March, it was reported that Abramovich had bought the world's biggest drill for $174m (�89m). The machine has a 19m diameter, making it nearly 25 per cent wider than its nearest rival. The purchase immediately sparked speculation that the billionaire wanted to build a tunnel linking Russia and America under the 88km wide Bering Strait, connecting Chukotka, the frozen Russian region of which he is governor, to Alaska and realising Vladimir Putin's vision of a "WorldLink" tunnel.

In a more frivolous vein, Abramovich was reportedto have spent more than �200,000 on a 16th birthday party for his daughter, Anna, at the London nightclub Paper, hiring The Klaxons and the Brazilian electro band CSS led by Lovefoxx, above left, to provide the entertainment. The 500 guests were treated to a flashing dance floor, a wind machine and alcohol-free cocktails.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/romans-empire-where-abramovich-spends-his-billions-830582.html

Partial History of Roman Abramovich (compiled by Axis of Logic from various sources)

Roman Abramovich is best known as a Russian billionaire. He owns the investment company Millhouse Capital, the English Premiership football team called Chelsea Football Club, and is the governor of Chukotka in Russia. He was was born on October 24, 1966 to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His mother, Irina Ostrowski Abramovich, died before Roman was two and his father, Arkady Abramovich, was killed in a construction accident less than two years later. As a result, Roman was raised by his paternal grandparents. Of Jewish background, Abramovich is a firm supporter of Israel, seen his funding of several projects in the Abramovich neighbourhood in Jerusalem, Israel and in Tel Aviv.

He attended the Industrial Institute in Ukhta before the Soviet Army drafted him a soldier. After his return from the army, Abramovich attended the Moscow State Auto Transport Institute for a brief period before leaving the academic world for good.

When Mikhail Gorbachev allowed small business development in post-communist Russia in the late 1980s, Roman Abramovich's wealth began selling plastic ducks from his small apartment in Moscow. After a few years, he began investing in other businesses, expanding his wealth. Between 1992 and 1995, Abramovich created companies that acted as resale intermediaries and he eventually focused his attention on the purchase and sale of oil. In 1995 he partnered with Boris Berezovsky to purchase a controlling share of the oil company Sibneft for a sum of $100 million. At the time the company was estimated to be worth $150 million, but after stock value jumped shortly after the acquisition, many Soviets began to question the estimated worth prior to sale. In 2000, Berezovsky left Russia over a fraud scandal and sold his shares to Abramovich.

In December of 2000, Abramovich was elected governor of Chukotka region in Siberian Russis. Chukotka works as a tax haven for Sibneft, the fifth largest oil producing and refining company in Russia. Sibneft twice attempted a merger with Yukos, to form Russia's largest oil company YukosSibneft. The first attempt in 1998 failed due to a dispute over management. The process was well under way the second time in 2003 when the Federal government cracked down on Yukos, and Sibneft's shareholders called off the merger in November of that year. 

Yukos and Mikhail Khodorkovsky

In July 2004, Yukos was charged with tax evasion, for an amount of over US$7 billion. On October 25, 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was founder of and held a controling stake in Yukos. He was arrested at Novosibirsk airport by the Russian prosecutor general's office on charges of fraud. In addition, prosecutors conducted an extensive investigation into Yukos for offences that went beyond the financial and tax-related charges.  On May 31, 2005, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who held a controlling stake in Yukos, was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to ten years in prison. 

Yukos defaulted on $1 billion in loans from a bank syndicate that lent money to Yukos including Citigroup, Commerzbank, Crédit Lyonnais, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING Bank, KBC Bank, BNP Paribas and the Netherlands unit of UFJ Bank. Société Générale is lead coordinator of the bank syndicate.

Reportedly there were three cases of murder and one of attempted murder linked to Yukos, if not Khodorkovsky himself. One area of interest to the Prosecutor-General included the 1998 assassination of the mayor of Nefteyugansk in the Tyumen region, Vladimir Petukhov. Nefteyugansk was the main centre of oil production within the Yukos empire. Suspicions arose in Nefteyugansk because Petukhov had publicly and frequently campaigned about Yukos' non-payment of local taxes.

On February 5, 2007, new charges of embezzlement and money laundering were brought against both Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Khodorkovsky's supporters point out that the charges come just months before Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were to become eligible for parole, as well as just a year before the next Russian presidential election. A week after the arrest, the Prosecutor-General froze Khodorkovsky's shares in Yukos to prevent Khodorkovsky from selling his shares although he retains all his rights to vote the shares and to receive dividends. 

In an interview with the FT, Leonid Nevzlin and Michael Brudno, whose Menatep group owns 60 per cent of Yukos shares, fled to Israel. They live live in an upscale suburb north of Tel Aviv where they champion the release of Khodorkovsky. Nevzlin lives in a $3.7 million home in Herzliya Pituah with a net worth estimated at $4.1 billion. In 2005, he was crowned "the richest person in Israel" by the Israeli press. The two men fled to Israel with their parther, Vladimir Duvdov. Together, they own 22% of Yukos or $7 billion worth. They took out Israeli citizenship at about the same time, setting up home in Israel in the hope of avoiding extradition over their alleged role in the Yukos affair. As well as the fraud-related charges, Mr Nevzlin is also wanted in Russia for conspiracy to murder. According to Haaretz, Russia's deputy state prosecutor, Vladimir Kolesnikov, indicated that Nevzlin was involved in the killing a rival businessman and "a long list" of people between 1998 and 2002, including ordering the killing of a Siberian mayor in 1998. With the support of the US government, Israel has refused to extradite these men to Russia to face criminal charges, complaining that they are victims of "political persecution". There are other Yukos kingpins who've been given asylum in Britain, who refuses to extradite them to Russia on grounds of "human rights".

Due to Khodorkovsky's Jewish ancestry, claims of antisemitism as the motivation for his arrest were raised. Given Khodorkovsky's prosecution along with that of Gusinskiy and Boris Berezovsky (who also have Jewish ancestry), it was posited that this was merely one of many steps to clear the Russian economy of Jews. However, this assertion of antisemitism has not been supported by the heads of the Federation of Russian Jews and the Russian Jewish Congress, which both defended Khodorkovsky's arrest.[citation needed]. Notably, other Jewish Russian Oligarchs have not suffered similar treatment and have even benefited from Kremlin patronage. For example, Roman Abramovich was appointed by Vladimir Putin for the second term as Governor of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Abramovich was elected Governor of Chukotka in 1999, but suggested that he would not run for the second term. When Russian law was changed so that Governors were appointed directly by the President, he was put in the office nevertheless. In 2003 Khodorkovsky's shares in Yukos passed to Jacob Rothschild under a deal they concluded prior to Khodorkovsky's arrest.

In 2003 Roman Abramovich purchased the Chelsea Football Club in the United Kingdom. The acquisition changed the marketing strategies of the game as well as the ability to "purchase" players. Due to Abramovich's personal wealth, he had the ability to build state of the art facilities and offer large salaries to players to join his team regardless of the financial status of the team itself. As a result, other teams have had to redirect wealth in order to keep up. Roman Abramovich currently resides in West London and is known as the second richest person in the United Kingdom.