Roman Abramovic has tonight handed over Chelsea FC to the trustees of the club's charitable foundation.
It comes after Parliament was told he had been named as a person of interest in 2019 because of alleged links to the Russian state and alleged 'association with corrupt activity and practices'.
Last night it was claimed any attempts to place sanctions upon him could have been disastrous for the club.
The Times reported if that did happen it could have prompted him to ask Chelsea to pay him back £1.5billion it owes him.
Liverpool University football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire said: 'If he feels he is being made a scapegoat for the activities of Putin then the worst-case scenario is he tries to call in the loan.