The luxurious lifestyle and labyrinthine business holdings of Roman Abramovich, the billionaire Russian owner of Chelsea Football Club, were on Wednesday laid bare in a potentially landmark ruling over a Siberian oil dispute.

In the latest of a series of English cases to delve into the historically opaque dealings of the oligarchs, Mr Abramovich successfully defended efforts to sue him in London for allegedly defrauding a bankrupt Russian oil company out of billions of dollars.