Could Roman Abramovich have secretly financed the world's largest cannabis company?

Documents leaked Reports from late last year show that several companies owned by Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch subject to international sanctions since the war in Ukraine, have invested in numerous companies in the U.S. cannabis industry and have also helped finance the two largest shareholders of Curaleaf, the the world's largest cannabis company with a market capitalization of nearly $3 billion.

The leak The source of these revelations is a set of 30,000 files from the Cyprus-based accounting and trust firm Meritservus Secretaries. They appeared on Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit website for whistleblowers.

These files were scanned by the journalism consortium Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which has enabled media outlets such as Forensics News or Barron’s, a publication associated with Wall Street Journal, to review thousands of records.

Abramovich's main activities in the cannabis industry

According to information provided by Forensics News then Baron’s, Roman Abramovich has made a major investment in Curaleaf, a Massachusetts-based cannabis producer whose 146 stores across 21 U.S. states make it the largest licensed cannabis company in the world.

Business records show that the Russian billionaire was one of Curaleaf’s founding shareholders and provided the company with approximately $186 million in loans. When the war in Ukraine began, he transferred his cannabis investments to family members.

In addition to Abramovitch’s direct investment in Curaleaf, Baron’s estimates that he lent approximately $84 million to Curaleaf’s largest shareholder, Andrey Blokh, and its president, Boris Jordan, on the condition that they spend the money on Curaleaf stock. When Jordan launched a cannabis venture capital fund, Abramovich provided two-thirds of the initial capital. Abramovich also separately backed Blokh with $12 million to explore business opportunities in the cannabis sector in the western United States.

His financing of the U.S. cannabis industry was hidden behind several layers of trusts and offshore companies, making Abramovich’s name invisible in public records. Instead, Millhouse appears as the family office d‘Abramovich, Cetus, an investment vehicle of Abramovich’s trustees, or Meliastove Investments.

Following the initial reports, Curaleaf stated that Abramovitch had never held any influence or decision-making role and severed ties with him.

«Mr. Abramovich is no longer a creditor or investor in Curaleaf,» the company said in a statement, «and the loans he provided to the company’s founding shareholders to invest in the company were repaid several years ago.»

«Curaleaf was one of thousands of companies around the world and in the United States that received funding from Mr. Abramovich,» the Curaleaf statement continues. «At the time, he was a highly sought-after investor and a globally recognized businessman. He remains unsanctioned in the United States.»

However, the oligarch remains the primary lender in Curaleaf’s debt transactions. Forensics News was able to determine that Abramovitch lent $60 million to Curaleaf in December 2021 through his company Meliastove. Curaleaf states that it still owes money to Meliastove, but that it has been assured that Abramovitch is no longer the owner.

As of late 2018, Cetus’s financial statements showed that it had invested $130 million across the cannabis sector and an additional $194 million in the form of loans.

Among his appearances: The Eaze, a California-based cannabis delivery service; the webcast producer Toke.TV Greenrush Media; Flowhub, a software provider for dispensaries; the CBD brand Green Gorilla; and the vape manufacturer Tilt Holdings.

Tilt claims that the executives who secured Abramovich’s investment no longer work at the company. Eaze says it was unaware that Abramovich owned Cetus.

Curaleaf also operates in Europe, with the acquisition of the British company EMMAC in 2021 or through the acquisition of the German company Four 20 Pharma in late 2022.