5 things you probably didn't know about Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich

#2 His first entrepreneurial venture was selling stolen fuel

Aged 18, after he studied at the Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas and the industrial institute in Ukhta, Abramovich was called up for military service. At the time, the Soviets were fighting a war in Afghanistan, but Abramovich joined late enough to avoid having to serve in the war-torn country.

But it was in the army where Abramovich would learn the tricks of the trade to make himself a lot of money.

Nikolai Panteleimonov, a friend of his in the army, explained how Abramovich devised a cunning scheme to make some easy money. He made a deal with delivery drivers to allow him to draw fuel from the vehicles’ fuel tanks. Abramovich would then sell this fuel to other drivers at a discount. Of course, all drivers were in on the scheme and it was a win-win for all parties involved.

“He was head and shoulders above the rest when it came to entrepreneurship,” Panteleimonov said. “He could make money out of thin air.”

Abramovich would then move to Moscow and build small businesses before he met Boris Berezovsky who helped him acquire a controlling interest in an oil company called Sibneft using several small firms set up for the purpose of buying stock. As a result, he took over a firm worth $2.7 billion by spending only $100.3 million!

It would soon be called “the largest single heist in corporate history”.