Roman Abramovich reportedly owes Queen Elizabeth £10,000 in rent for the land his mansion is built on. The UK government sanctioned the Chelsea football club owner last week, with his assets frozen for his alleged relationship with Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.
It's meant the billionaire oligarch has been unable to pay rent to the Queen for the land on which his mansion, worth £107 million, is located. The 15-room home in London, within walking distance of Kensington Palace, is under a 125-year lease with the land belonging to the Crown Estate.
Abramovich is at risk of losing another sizeable asset on UK soil due to sanctions preventing oligarch money from being accepted. The £10,000 rent is supposedly rising to £160,000-a-year at a later date, reports The Daily Star.
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The Blues owner was aware of the risks and tried to sell the property in recent weeks to no avail, it has been reported. If he is unable to pay the Queen, the Crown Estate can sue him and confiscate the property, reports Wales Online.
It comes as Abramovic is unable to sell Chelsea for a profit while the club is also extremely limited in their income sources and expenditure. The Russian suffered more humiliation last week when he was disqualified as a director of the west London side by the Premier League.
The government has placed the club under a special licence. The licence is designed to prevent Chelsea – and by extension Abramovich – generating any new revenue, including from ticket sales.
Chelsea released a statement on Monday afternoon saying they were pressing the Government for the right to sell tickets, and that the club were holding daily meetings to get the licence amended.
