THE vetting process for super-rich immigrants coming to Jersey remains under constant review, the Deputy Chief Minister has said in the wake of global concerns over Russian oligarchs and where their money is held.
Senator Lyndon Farnham defended the system for screening high-net-worth individuals after Jersey was thrust into the spotlight for its billion-pound links to now-sanctioned oligarch Roman Abramovich, who, the JEP revealed in 2018, was offered housing qualifications.
Today, this newspaper can reveal that an associate of Mr Abramovich owns a £10 million house in St Brelade, and used the same Jersey trust firm as Mr Abramovich to register a company in the Island.
Valery Oyf – who has been described in international media as a close friend of Mr Abramovich – bought his mansion in Ouaisné Bay in 2020 with his wife Yulia Makeyeva, an artist based in Jersey, in an area of the Island that has become renowned for breaking property records.
Responding to a query on whether the eligibility criteria for 21Es needed to be tightened or overhauled, Senator Farnham said: ‘All aspects of the process areregularly reviewed and improved, including the non-financial criteria. Work is currently under way to provide a greater analysis in relation to economic and housing market impact.
‘Our due diligence surrounding 21Es applications is rigorous, robust and in-depth – more so than for any other people who come to Jersey to live and work. We will continue to enhance the controls and eligibility criteria.’
When asked if it was a mistake to offer 21E status to Mr Abramovich and anyone with ties to the oligarch, Senator Farnham said: ‘We do not comment on individual applications. Past applications were assessed on international circumstances at the time.’
He added: ‘Jersey is fully implementing the current tranche of sanctions being used as a tool to support specific international efforts in response to Russian aggression.’
Believed to have been born in Odessa, Mr Oyf is a former vice-president at one of Russia’s largest oil companies, Sibneft (now Gazprom), and was there at the same time as the firm’s former owner Mr Abramovich, who bought it for around $250 million in 1995 before selling it back to the Russian government in 2005 for $15bn. Mr Oyf has not faced any sanctions, while Mr Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK and Jersey in March in response to the war in Ukraine.
Mr Oyf is not the only associate of Mr Abramovich with property ties to St Brelade. The JEP can also reveal that Eugene Tenenbaum owns two flats near St Aubin’s Village worth a combined £3.5m.
Mr Tenenbaum, a Canadian national with Jersey residence, also previously worked at Sibneft and is a director at Chelsea FC.
Mr Oyf was one of a number of oligarchs, which also included Chelsea FC owner Mr Abramovich, who announced their intentions to sell the top-flight football clubs they owned in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Mr Oyf saying in a statement in March that making the decision to step away from Dutch team Vitesse Arnhem had been ‘difficult’.
This newspaper recently revealed that a St Helier-registered firm loaned £1.5bn to one of the Mr Abramovich’s companies.
The firm – Camberley International Investments – was registered at 50 La Colomberie by Zedra Trust Company in 2020. Zedra, which has offices in several global locations – including at 50 La Colomberie – also appears to have links to Mr Oyf.
Zedra registered another firm at its offices in November 2020, Matteson Overseas Ltd, a company which Mr Oyf used to sell £49m worth of shares in a mining company earlier that year.
