Roman Abramovich company was behind $120 million mortgage to Fisher Island developer

Wendy Siegelman
6 min readMar 28, 2022

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New reporting shows that Roman Abramovich is the beneficiary of Tri-Star Capital Ventures Limited registered in the British Virgin Islands, that provided two mortgage payments of $120 million to PDS Development in 2014 and 2015 for Palazzo Del Sol/Della Luna on exclusive Fisher Island, Florida. The development was previously owned by billionaire Arkady “Badri” Patarkatsishvili, the former business partner of Boris Berezovsky, who in turn was the former business partner of Roman Abramovich in Russian oil company Sibneft.

Note: This chart and the source links below may be updated periodically. There is no indication of any illegal or criminal activity in this chart.

Recently The New York Times reported that an obscure company called Concord Management in Tarrytown New York that is run by Michael Matlin oversaw between $4 billion to $8 billion and several sources said the bulk of the money Concord managed was for Putin ally Roman Abramovich.

I had tweeted out that Concord Management founder Matlin is a director of The Regeneration Group Limited in the UK, which has several links to Abramovich. Regeneration Group shareholder Andrey Osipov lists in his bio that he previously worked for Roman Abramovich’s Millhouse. He also worked for Russian Oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Viktor Vekselberg.

The Chairman of the Regeneration Group Sir Michael Peet, the former secretary for Prince Charles, was a director for Abramovich’s Evraz group from 2011 to March 2022. However the Regeneration Group has said they have no business links to Abramovich.

A 2017 marketing pdf for The Regeneration Group describes some of Michael Matlin’s other roles:

Since 2005 Michael has been on the Advisory Board of Carlyle European Real Estate Funds who manage c$14 billion of assets including office buildings, hotels, retail and residential properties, industrial properties and senior living facilities. In addition, Michael serves as a Director on the Supervisory Board of SIMMO AG a diversified real estate public company whose shares are listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange.

Matlin has been a director of the Austrian company S IMMO AG since 2016. Roman Abramovich was an 11% owner of S IMMO AG from at least 2013 until he sold his stake in 2017. The filing below shows that the stake was owned by Cyprus company Anadoria Investments Ltd, which was fully owned by BVI company Tri-Star Capital Ventures Limited whose ultimate beneficiary is Roman Abramovich.

The chart above includes new reporting on Roman Abramovich and his company Tri-Star Capital Ventures Limited based in the BVI.

In 2007 Tri-Star Capital Ventures made an $8.5 million loan to a US company called Tekoil. The Deed of Guarantee is signed by Vilija Nikulina who is listed as Director of Tri-Star. In 2010 Tekoil went bankrupt and their major creditor was J. Aron a company that was part of Goldman Sachs.

Vilija Niculina is mentioned in a filing related to Highland Capital Management, which describes:

Concord represented two BVI investors, Bradfield Overseas Holdings., Ltd. (“Bradfield”) and Netherfield Holdings Ltd. (“Netherfield”) which each invested $45 million in the Fund upon Concord’s recommendation. The certification for both Bradfield and Netherfield is signed by Vilija Niculina as a Director with an address in Vilnius, Lithuania. A second Director is identified as Gotcha Djabidze with an address in Vienna, Austria.

In new reporting — Tri-Star Capital Ventures Limited owned by Roman Abramovich — was behind $120 million in mortgages made in 2014 and 2015 for Fisher Island developments. The mortgages were satisfied in 2016.

The November 3, 2014 mortgage was for $45 million between PDS Development LLC (mortgagor) and Tri-Star Capital Ventures Ltd (mortgagee). The mortgage notes Tri-Star Capital Ventures Ltd — BVI registered number 480343, 3rd Floor, J&C Building, P.O. Box 362, Road Town, Tortola, VG1110, British Virgin Islands).

The mortgage includes a section (h) which notes:

Greenleas Side Letter: that certain letter agreement among Fisher Island Holdings, LLC, Par 7, LLC, FI Properties Limited, and PDS Development LLC, and acknowledged and agreed by Greenleas International Holdings Limited (“Greenleas”), dated July 2, 2014.

Greenleas International Holdings Limited is a company that has owned significant share ownership in Roman Abramovich’s company Evraz.

The July 13, 2015 Amended and restated mortgage and security agreement renewed the original $45 million loan and added $75 million for an aggregate principal amount $120,000,000.

Both mortgage agreements were signed by Natalia Bychenkova Director, with a note ‘produced Russian passport’. A recent New York Times story says documentation related to an entity called Caythorpe Holdings, registered in the British Virgin Islands, was signed by a lawyer named Natalia Bychenkova.

The mortgages were both satisfied in the April 18, 2016 Satisfaction of Mortgage and Related Instruments.

Units at Palazzo Del Sol sold for $6 to $35 million and one buyer was Aras Agalarov (thru Saffron Property Management on April 12, 2016). Another buyer Vladimir Krasavtsev had owned and sold a lot on Indian Creek for $27.5 million, near where Jared & Ivanka bought a property in 2021 for $32 million.

The President and Chief Executive Officer of PDS Development LLC is Heinrich von Hanau, who previously worked for Thomas Kramer at Portofino Group, and who is also known as Prince Heinrich. A 2016 Financial Times article described:

Miami-based property developer Heinrich von Hanau or, to be formal, Prince Heinrich — he is a descendant of William I (1743–1821), Elector of Hesse in Germany. Since 2010, the Austrian-born prince has been chief executive of Fisher Island Holdings, which owns the island. His company is building the first new residential project on Fisher in a decade and, in so doing, is hoping to attract a younger generation of uber-wealthy buyers to this “old Miami” resort.

A post in Cash Flow Miami said Von Hanau developed the luxury Fisher Island condo buildings Palazzo Del Sol and Palazzo Della Luna, and the companies behind the projects are owned by Valmore Trust, the beneficiaries of which are Inna Gudavadze — a businesswoman from the country of Georgia and the widow of one of- Georgia’s wealthiest men, Arkady “Badri” Patarkatsishvili — and her daughters Liana Zhmotova and Ilya Patarkatsishvili.

The company that owns PDS Development is Fisher Island Limited in the United Kingdom, which is owned by SP Trustees GmbH, which is owned by The Valmore Trust. Fisher Island Limited also owns some properties in Spain and Morocco. In Spain they own Tidjicka, S. L. which owns some property at the Benahavis Hills Country Club development.

It is not clear what portions are owned by Fisher Island Limited or other owners, but the Benahavis Hills Country Club development is an exclusive location in Spain. Putin was rumored to own a villa there and in 2021 Boris Johnson vacationed there at a holiday villa linked to Zac Goldsmith firms accused of tax evasion. Another property was owned by Adnan Khashogg.

From April 2016 to January 2018 Martin Egli was listed as significant owner of Fisher Island Limited. Martin Egli is Honorary President at Swisspartners, which paid $4.4 million for tax evasion in 2014 in probe by Preet Bharara in the Southern District of New York.

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Wendy Siegelman

Freelance journalist. All new work is now published on my new site https://newstracs.com/ (you can subscribe there for email updates)