THE government has refused to reveal if an investigation into unlawful raids of premises allegedly connected to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has begun.
Chief Minister Kristina Moore said she had requested an independent review into the searches in November, shortly after anonymised court documents revealed that search warrants – used by police officers seconded to the Economic Crime and Confiscation Unit to raid two properties in April – were ‘obtained unlawfully’.
The raids preceded a freeze of more than $7bn-worth of assets suspected to be connected to Mr Abramovich, through a Royal Court order known as a ‘saisie judiciaire’.
The documents also showed that, at an unpublicised Royal Court hearing, police chief Robin Smith agreed to apologise to two applicants – understood to be local financial services firms allegedly linked to Mr Abramovich – and pay damages to them using public funds.
On Friday, the government refused to answer questions from the JEP on whether the independent review requested by Deputy Moore had started – and who was going to be leading it.
It is not the first time that details surrounding the police searches have been withheld from the media. In November the government also declined to say how much public money would be used to fund the damages.
And in a States Assembly sitting later that month, Attorney General Mark Temple said he was unable to comment on disciplinary proceedings in his department – stating that it was ‘very important that live criminal investigations are not subject to political interference’.
The Guardian recently reported that it had seen leaked files suggesting trusts linked to the Russian oligarch were amended – prior to sanctions being imposed – so that his children became beneficial owners of assets worth billions of dollars.
