Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.
The Russian’s lawyers have filed a court application claiming criminal investigations by island authorities into his finances are a “violation”, “unfair” and “abusive”.
An escalation of a four-year legal row comes after Abramovich assembled a heavyweight legal team that includes Eric Herschmann, a prominent former White House adviser to Donald Trump, and Lord Wolfson KC, the shadow attorney general in the House of Lords.
Telegraph Sport first reported in November last year, following the removal of a privacy order, how the Jersey dispute was a key factor in delaying the release of the £2.35bn Chelsea sale fund for war victims.
Jersey first took action against Abramovich in 2022, freezing his assets there, after the Todd Boehly-led Clearlake consortium bought Chelsea as he was sanctioned in the UK over alleged links to Vladimir Putin.
After an application was filed to the European court this week, a representative of Abramovich told Telegraph Sport: “This investigation, which has dragged on for years without charges, transparency, or credible evidence, represents a clear abuse of power by the Government of Jersey and a violation of fundamental rights.
"Authorities have withheld key information and ignored basic procedural safeguards, showing how this is not a legitimate legal process, but one driven by political motives. We expect the European Court of Human Rights to recognise these failures and reach the same conclusion.”
The Jersey government has been contacted for comment.
The Abramovich camp say he has been unable to release the Chelsea funds he pledged for war victims because the money is tied up in the Jersey dispute.
Companies House records show his UK-registered vehicle Fordstam, which received the £2.35bn fund, has an outstanding £1.5bn debt to Camberley International Investments, the Jersey parent company that was hit with an assets freeze. Abramovich has therefore defied warnings of UK court action for the release of the Chelsea fund while his Jersey litigation remains ongoing.
Jersey performed a dramatic about-turn in its treatment of Abramovich following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In September 2017, Abramovich was warmly welcomed in a letter from the States of Jersey accepting application for residency on the island, correspondence seen by Telegraph Sport show.
“It would be a pleasure to see you again when you are next in Jersey and perhaps we could meet for lunch and discuss the soft landing in Jersey,” wrote the island’s director of high value residency in a letter to the Russian.
But in April 2022, a month after Abramovich pledged to make Chelsea sale funds available for “all” Ukraine war victims, the Royal Court of Jersey imposed a formal freezing order on $7bn (£5.3bn) worth of assets linked to him.
The attorney general of Jersey said at the time that Abramovich was a suspect in a criminal investigation. Months later, officers admitted that raids carried out at premises owned by Abramovich were unlawful. The case has not been formally closed while appeals remain ongoing. The Law Officers’ Department said in March it was “unable to provide comment on live investigations”.
Abramovich has won several court decisions on the island since as he seeks to retrieve data about the case.
In the new claim to the European court, the claim says a formal respondent to the appeal will be the United Kingdom.
The application details out how the investigation in Jersey has dragged on for four years without charges being brought and without authorities presenting “credible evidence” to justify the measures against Abramovich.
Abramovich argues that his right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights has been breached, contending that the proceedings in Jersey are both “unfair and abusive”. The application also claims a breach of his right to private life − contending that public announcements about criminal action in 2022 by the Jersey Attorney General were “politically motivated” and “unlawful”.
Abramovich has already secured formal apologies and damages from the island. In 2025, Jersey’s royal court issued a summary judgment against the Government of Jersey, finding that it had violated his rights by withholding data related to the investigation.
The Jersey row is separate from a dispute between Abramovich and the UK Government over the Chelsea sale proceeds. Earlier this month, an application to the Charity Commission was filed detailing Abramovich’s plan to spend the proceeds on war victims “anywhere” rather than only in Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since 2022.
The British government, which has previously insisted on the money being spent within the borders of Ukraine, has not responded to Telegraph Sport requests for comment on whether it will give its permission for the charity to be set up.