The Antiguan government has established that two yachts moored in the Caribbean island belong to Roman Abramovich, confirming a Financial Times investigation that revealed the vessels appeared to be owned by the sanctions-hit oligarch.
The FT reported this week that boats docked in Antigua’s Falmouth Harbour were owned by a British Virgin Island company with ties to Abramovich, prompting the Caribbean nation to call on the UK government to help confirm whether the oligarch was their ultimate owner.
In a letter to the British High Commissioner to Barbados seen by the FT, Antigua’s minister of foreign affairs Paul Chet Greene said the island’s government had requested to know whether the owner of the BVI company, Wenham Overseas Limited, appeared on Britain’s sanctions list, in light of “persistent allegations by the Financial Times that the vessels could be owned by Mr Roman Abramovich”.