Eugene Tenenbaum, who grew up in Toronto and met Abramovich after moving to Moscow in the early 1990s as national director of KPMG Peat Marwick Russia, had recently agreed to purchase a company called Ervington Investments Ltd. from a trust called Norma Investments.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported control of Norma Investments had been transferred to another Abramovich associate named David Davidovich around the time of the Ukraine invasion. Asked to clarify whether he meant the situation surrounding Abramovich and sanctions imposed by the European Union, Canada, and the United Kingdom, which caused him to put his London-based Chelsea FC football club on the block, Tenenbaum responded: “Correct.”
He referred to Abramovich by the initials RA, and said: “RA or the family of RA have no involvement in this transaction and are not the beneficial owner of Ervington.”