777 Partners has done business with a Russian oligarch, and one of its founding members has links with another. Both oligarchs have long been accused of having close ties with Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, and are the subject of sanctions.
By Paul Brown and Philippe Auclair
Everton’s current owner Farhad Moshiri’s long-standing ties to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov have long been a matter of public record. But what is not so well known is the fact that several figures involved with the club’s prospective new owners 777 Partners also have ties to Russian money.
Josimar can reveal that 777’s very first foray into football club ownership was funded by a man named Oleg Boyko, who was sanctioned by Ukraine, Canada and Australia in 2022 for his alleged links to the Kremlin. Boyko, a Moscow-born businessman with a net worth estimated by Forbes at 1.2 billion US dollars, owns the Finstar Financial Group, which represents an international group of companies and has offices in Serbia, Cyprus and the UAE.
Boyko himself has a track record of investing in industries including financial services, banks, IT and real estate. But in 2018, he also became an indirect investor in La Liga club Sevilla, via a loan of around 10 million dollars to 777 Partners. The loan was made by Nakula Management Limited to Sevillistas Unidos 2020 SL. Boyko is the beneficial owner of Nakula according to a public filing made to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. And Sevillistas Unidos is a subsidiary of Nutmeg Acquisition LLC, the holding company used by 777 to manage all their football clubs. It is also through Sevillistas Unidos that 777 purchased Genoa CFC in September 2021. The principal balance outstanding on the loan to Boyko by...
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