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Americans largest cannabis company was secretly funded by a Putin-linked Russian billionaire.
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His name appeared in zero licensing documents.
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Three states investigated. Here’s what happened.
Over $225 million from Roman Abramovich – routed through offshore shell companies in the British Virgin Islands – quietly built the foundation of Curaleaf. Regulators in three states only found out because a Cypriot accounting firm got hacked. The investigations that followed largely went nowhere.
In late 2022, a cache of 30,000 leaked documents from a Cyprus-based accounting firm landed in the hands of journalists and researchers. What they found inside changed the story of how America’s legal cannabis industry got built.
The documents showed that Roman Abramovich — the Russian billionaire who owned Chelsea Football Club and has been sanctioned by the UK, European Union, and Canada for his close ties to Vladimir Putin – had secretly funneled over $225 million into Curaleaf, then known as PalliaTech, and at least two of its largest shareholders between 2015 and 2021. He did it through a British Virgin Islands-registered shell company called Cetus Investments. Internally, Cetus staff referred to Abramovich only as “Mr. Blue” – a nod to the Chelsea FC’s nickname, “the Blues.”
However, despite the copious investment, his name appeared in no state licensing documents. Not in Massachusetts. Not in Connecticut. Not in Vermont. Not anywhere.
How the money moved
Here’s the gist of how it worked, in plain terms. Abramovich’s shell company made a series of targeted loans to Curaleaf’s two biggest shareholders – Executive Chairman Boris Jordan and Andrey Blokh – with one condition attached to each loan: the money had to be used to buy shares in PalliaTech, the company that became Curaleaf. By the end of 2018, Abramovich’s company had lent approximately $140 million to Jordan and Blokh combined. On top of that, SEC filings confirm Cetus lent $85 million directly to Curaleaf itself. Total: $225 million — the financial backbone of what became the world’s largest licensed cannabis company.
None of this was random. Jordan and Abramovich had a long-standing business relationship going back to Russia in the 1990s. Abramovich also became a 64.8% shareholder in Measure 8, the cannabis venture capital firm Jordan founded — after injecting $48.5 million into it. He also held stakes in Eaze, Tilt Holdings, Green Gorilla, and other US cannabis companies.
Why does that matter? Because cannabis licensing in every US state requires applicants to disclose their ownership, financing, and anyone with a significant financial interest in the business. The entire system is built on the assumption that regulators know who is actually behind a company. Vermont’s Cannabis Control Board chair James Pepper said directly: “Abramovich never appeared in any of their filings.”
When regulators found out – from a hack
Cannabis regulators in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont didn’t uncover this through their own oversight processes. They found out because a journalist read leaked documents from a hacked accounting firm and started asking questions.
Massachusetts was the first to formally open an investigation. Connecticut regulators followed, looking into whether Curaleaf violated state law by accepting the loans without proper disclosure. Vermont’s board also contacted both states for information after VTDigger brought the issue to their attention. At one point, Vermont’s board chair said Curaleaf could lose its license if the board found it had hidden the ties.
That was 2023. Here’s what happened: Vermont concluded the investigations “went nowhere,” and that Abramovich’s ties to Curaleaf had ended before the company entered the Vermont market. Massachusetts ultimately fined Curaleaf $80,000 — for pesticide violations and failure to maintain personnel records. Not for the undisclosed Russian oligarch money. For pesticides.
Curaleaf agreed to a six-month probationary period. That was in 2024. The company operates in 17 states and nine countries as of March 2026.
What this tells us about cannabis licensing
This story isn’t really about Abramovich. He’s not sanctioned in the United States, and Curaleaf maintains the loans were legal, repaid before the Ukraine invasion, and not secret. Those points may all be true.
This story is about what the Abramovich funding reveals about the system. Cannabis licensing was supposed to be one of the most rigorous vetting processes in American business – background checks, financial disclosures, ownership transparency. States built that framework specifically to keep out exactly the kind of money that has historically followed new, lightly regulated industries: offshore capital, undisclosed investors, and money looking for a legitimate front.
What the Cyprus leak showed is that a sanctioned foreign billionaire – referred to internally only by a code name, routed through a British Virgin Islands shell company, his name absent from every state filing – was the largest single financial backer of what became one of the world’s biggest legal cannabis companies. The vetting process didn’t catch it; a hacked accounting firm did.
Three states opened investigations. The result? A measly $80,000 pesticide fine and a ‘probation period’ that has since expired.
If you work in cannabis, invest in cannabis, regulate weed, or buy marijuana – that’s the disclosure system your industry is running on. Just an FYI.
Sources: Forensic News · VICE World News · CT News Junkie · VTDigger · GBH News · VTDigger (Dec 2023) · Worcester Business Journal · The Deep Dive · Bloomberg Law · Barron’s
Got a tip about cannabis financial disclosures or regulatory gaps in your state? Contact CWR.
