The American Forbes obtained access to the financial documents of the Cypriot service provider, which prove that among the state contracts of the US and British governments, there are seven startups in which Roman Abramovich previously invested. In total, these projects represent $65 million in financing.
The publication separately highlights that some of these government contracts were concluded after the introduction of personal sanctions by the UK against the billionaire and after the freezing of his assets. The startups may not even know that Roman Abramovich acted as an investor.
According to documents received from an anonymous source, from 2013 to 2019 the oligarch invested at least $22 million in start-ups, which later became the object of state interest of the US and UK authorities.
California-based “smart” geolocation app Kiana Analytics appears in the materials. The company received $140,000 from overseas Innes Worldwide Holdings, which was owned by Abramovich through the Cypriot Proteus Trust until February 2022.
The same start-up received a grant from the US Department of Homeland Security to develop technology for customs and border protection seven months after this transaction. The contract amount is $200,000. In total, after the billionaire’s investment and to date, nearly $1 million has been invested in Kiana Analytics under government contracts.
Another example is the Swiss biotech startup Insphero. In 2015, Abramovich acquired a 14.4% stake in the company, and in July 2022, the UK Medical Research Council signed a contract with the company for $49,000.
Another company involved in the development of biotechnology, the American Cellphire Therapeutics, received around $2 million from the billionaire in 2019, and around $55 million from the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Health under government contracts (in addition, more than $7 million were allocated million after the introduction of sanctions by Great Britain against the billionaire).
The documents also name Ambulnz, a US medical logistics company, Weeding Technologies, an agritech startup, Zipline International, a drone delivery service and Exabyte, a software developer.
The American Forbes points out that, however, most of the investments were made before the sanctions and asset freezes, in addition, the United States did not impose personal sanctions against Roman Abramovich, so they have no legal problems with government contracts with companies in which the billionaire has. invested.
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
