Abramovich’s assets in the United States include many millions of dollars of real estate,such as a pair of luxury residences near Aspen,Colorado. But he also invested large sums of money with financial institutions. His ties to Putin and the source of his wealth have long made him a controversial figure.
Many of Abramovich’s US investments were facilitated by a small firm called Concord Management LLC,which is led by Michael Matlin,according to people with knowledge of the transactions who were not authorised to speak publicly.
Matlin declined to comment beyond issuing a statement that described Concord as “a consulting firm that provides independent third party research,due diligence and monitoring of investments.”
A spokeswoman for Abramovich didn’t respond to emails and text messages requesting comment.
Concord,founded in 1999,didn’t directly manage any of Abramovich’s money. It acted more like an investment adviser and due diligence firm,making recommendations to the directors of shell companies in Caribbean tax havens about potential investments in marquee American investment firms,according to people briefed on the matter.
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Big Wall Street banks like Credit Suisse,Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley often introduced Concord executives to hedge funds,according to people with knowledge of those meetings.
Over the years,Concord arranged more than 100 investments in different hedge funds and private equity firms,mostly for Abramovich,according to an internal document prepared by one Wall Street firm. They included funds managed by Millennium Management,BlackRock,Sarissa Capital Management,Carlyle Group,D.E. Shaw and Bear Stearns,according to people briefed on the matter and the document.
Concord kept a low profile. It didn’t have a website. It is not registered with US regulators. One of the few times it surfaced in public was in 2020,when Concord applied for and received a Paycheck Protection Program loan worth $US265,000 during the pandemic. (Concord repaid the loan,a spokesman said.)
Concord’s secrecy made some on Wall Street wary.
In 2015 and 2016,investigators at State Street,a financial services firm,filed “suspicious activity reports” alerting the US government to transactions that Concord arranged involving some of Abramovich’s Caribbean shell companies,BuzzFeed News reported. State Street declined to comment.
His ties to Putin and the source of his wealth have long made him a controversial figure.
American financial institutions are required to file such reports to help the US government combat money laundering and other financial crimes,though the reports are not themselves evidence of any wrongdoing having been committed.
But for the most part,American financiers had no inkling about — or interest in discovering — the source of the money that Concord was directing. As long as routine background checks didn’t turn up red flags,it was fine.
Paulson&Co.,the hedge fund run by John Paulson,received investments from a company that Concord represented,according to a person with knowledge of the investment. Paulson said in an email that he had “no knowledge” of Concord’s investors.
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Concord also steered tens of millions of dollars from two shell companies to Highland Capital,a Texas hedge fund. Highland hired a unit of JPMorgan Chase,the nation’s largest bank,to ensure that the companies were legitimate and that the investments complied with anti-money laundering rules,according to federal court records in an unrelated bankruptcy case.
JPMorgan cleared the investment. Highland never learned the ultimate source of the money,the court records show.
Big hedge funds might have accepted the money even if they realised it belonged to Abramovich. At the time,the oligarch hadn’t been sanctioned.