Fordstam Limited, a company owned by Roman Abramovich and the former parent company of Chelsea FC, is just over one month away from being struck off the Registrar of Companies and dissolved, unless, their accounts are filed or a confirmation statement is produced. Fordstam received the strik-off notice on June 6.
The First Gazette Notice said: "The Registrar of Companies gives notice that unless cause is shown to the contrary, the Company will be struck off the register and dissolve not less than two months from the date shown above. Upon the Company's dissolution, all property and rights vested in, or held in trust for, the Company are deemed to be bona vacantia, and will belong to the Crown."
Fordstam was hit when sanctions were placed on Roman Abramovich in March 2022. The company, whose registered address remains at Stamford Bridge, last filed accounts in 2021 but ahead of Chelsea's takeover by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in May 2022 provided information to the registrar with no filings since.
A frozen Fordstam account is said to hold £2.35billion from Chelsea's takeover fee that was designated to set up a foundation to support victims of the war in Ukraine. The funds were placed in a frozen bank account to ensure Abrmovich did not receive any proceeds from the sale.
However, that has led to a great deal of frustration, with CEO of the foundation, and former Unicef UK chief executive Mike Penrose making a plea to the United Kingdom government to ease the restrictions in place.
Penrose wrote in a column for The Times’ Red Box newsletter: “All we are asking the government to do is release the funds to us, without applying political conditions that would limit our ability to help all Ukrainians, the communities and people hosting them, and the most vulnerable people directly affected by this conflict.
READ MORE: Chelsea news and transfers LIVE: All of the latest updates coming out of Stamford Bridge
“When Chelsea was sold, the proceeds were gifted to our proposed foundation so they could benefit ‘all victims of the Ukraine war and its consequences’, terms which were subsequently written into the documents of sale approved by the government.
“A year later, the Foundation is now being told by government that, because of an agreement with the EU, the gift will only be released if we agree to limit spending to within the geographic borders of Ukraine, and cannot consider any request that would allocate money to either Ukrainians outside of Ukraine, families hosting them in other countries including in places like Britain, or to the many others suffering because of the war.”
Penrose also looked to clear up suspicions that some of the money could be put towards Russia's efforts given the open nature of the initial statement that declared 'all victims of the Ukraine war'. The CEO said that would not be possible.
He added: “To clarify one further issue that is often speculated on, if we were allowed to support ‘all victims of the Ukraine war and its consequences’, we could not allocate funds to Russia or Belarus, or institutions linked to their governments or sanctioned individuals, as that would breach sanctions law. I can assure you that neither I, nor our esteemed board, wishes to go to jail.
“Furthermore, the government would have an observer within the Foundation, able to raise objections over any project they believe could contravene sanctions law.”
