Jersey authorities are investigating Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in connection with suspected money laundering and possible sanctions violations, according to Swiss court judgments issued in May and obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). 

The rulings orders compelled a bank to hand over records for three companies in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands, and Jersey, and authorized Swiss prosecutors to share banking records after movements totaling hundreds of millions of dollars were traced through accounts in Switzerland, OCCRP reported.

Cypriot officials told the media outlet that they had supplied extensive company, trust, and bank-account records at Jersey’s request. Jersey’s attorney general declined to comment on a live investigation.

The Swiss decisions describe a businessman identified only as “G,” but background details allowed reporters to conclusively identify Abramovich. 

Investigators in Jersey suspect companies under his control carried out transactions and provided financial services after he was sanctioned there on March 10, 2022, OCCRP said. The British crown dependency blacklisted Abramovich in line with the UK and EU following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The judgments tie investigators’ interest to Abramovich’s $13 billion sale of oil firm Sibneft in 2005, saying proceeds were paid into accounts of entities linked to two Jersey companies. Jersey prosecutors also suspect Abramovich made “corruption payments” in the 1990s to help maintain control of a Russian company based in the bailiwick. 

An English High Court judge in 2012 concluded that Abramovich made “substantial cash payments” in the 1990s to secure political patronage, though that ruling did not find he broke any law.

Read more from OCCRP