Chelsea FC director with Canadian ties says acquisition of Abramovich-linked investment vehicle ‘annulled’

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An accountant from Toronto with longstanding ties to Roman Abramovich, one of the wealthy Russian businessmen sanctioned by western nations following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, told the Financial Post this week that a deal to buy an investment vehicle linked to Abramovich was never completed “due to the current situation.”

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Eugene Tenenbaum, who grew up in Toronto and met Abramovich after moving to Moscow in the early 1990s as national director of KPMG Peat Marwick Russia, had recently agreed to purchase a company called Ervington Investments Ltd. from a trust called Norma Investments.

The transaction was first reported by Reuters and was referenced in London Stock Exchange filings, which indicated the transfer of control took place on Feb. 24, the same day that Russia invaded Ukraine.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported control of Norma Investments had been transferred to another Abramovich associate named David Davidovich around the time of the Ukraine invasion. 

Abramovich’s family was previously the beneficial owner of Norma, Tenenbaum told the Financial Post, but at the time he sought to buy Ervington from Norma, it was controlled by Davidovich.

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However, Tenenbaum says his transaction was annulled. 

“Regarding Ervington, my company is no longer the shareholder as the transaction was never fully completed and annulled due to the current situation,” Tenenbaum said via email, adding that the transaction “was reversed by mutual agreement between the buyer and the seller.”

Asked to clarify whether he meant the situation surrounding Abramovich and sanctions imposed by the European Union, Canada, and the United Kingdom, which caused him to put his London-based Chelsea FC football club on the block, Tenenbaum responded: “Correct.”

Tenenbaum said the seller he referred to in his annulled transaction had been Davidovich and not Abramovich’s family.

My transaction was with Norma. Not the family

Eugene Tenenbaum

“My transaction was with Norma. Not the family. When I started the transaction Davidovich was already the owner of Norma through his company,” Tenenbaum said.

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He referred to Abramovich by the initials RA, and said: “RA or the family of RA have no involvement in this transaction and are not the beneficial owner of Ervington.”

According to Reuters, which first reported the Ervington sale last month, the company had been used as an investment vehicle for Abramovich for at least eight years. Among its investments was a ride-sharing app called Via.

Tenenbaum told Reuters that he was keen to buy Ervington because it is a company he had worked with for many years and wanted to continue to do so.

Asked what had changed since last month, he told the Financial Post: “I think my statement ‘due to the current situation’ sums it all up.”

Tenenbaum added that neither he nor Davidovich is subject to any sanctions.

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Both have long been associated with Abramovich. Tenenbaum is on the board of Chelsea FC, a football club in the U.K.’s Premier League, which is owned by Abramovich. The team is now on the block as a result of U.K. sanctions that were imposed on Abramovich in March following Russia’s invasion. Abramovich has also been sanctioned by Canada and the European Union.

He has not faced sanctions in the United States and has been widely reported to be assisting with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine aimed at resolving the armed conflict. The western sanctions aimed at those with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin or his regime have sparked widespread interest in assets owned by those targeted.

Abramovich is understood to have made much of his fortune selling his energy company Sibneft to Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom in 2006 for US$13.1 billion. 

Tenenbaum, whose family immigrated to Canada in the 1970s from Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union, worked for Sibneft as head of corporate finance beginning in 1998.

The website for Chelsea FC describes him as one of Abramovich’s “closest associates.”

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