A top football agent has been acquitted of sending an intimidating email message to former Chelsea director of football Marina Granovskaia – the so-called “right hand” of the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
The agent, Saif Alrubie, 45, was cleared by a jury of seven men and five women on Monday at Southwark crown court. They unanimously found he was not guilty of sending an “electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety”, after deliberating for more than four hours.
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Alrubie had claimed that threatening a close associate of Abramovich – who was hit with sanctions by the UK government in March 2022 because of “clear connections” to the regime of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin – would have been a “suicide mission”. He had faced a maximum of two years in prison for an offence contrary to the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
On hearing the verdict, Alrubie leaned forward and covered his face with his hands. There were audible sobs from his family members seated in the public gallery.
The verdict concludes a high-profile case that has lifted the lid on the at times opaque and colourful world inhabited by football agents.
The trial included the spectacle of one of the prosecution’s main witnesses – the well-known football agent Kia Joorabchian – not giving his evidence after he secretly flew to the US on a private jet on the first day of the trial, despite having been “ordered to make himself available as a witness”, according to defence counsel.
It also included repeated accusations by Alrubie that Granovskaia was a “liar”; stories about high-level security teams; and titillating explanations about how debts are settled in a world where contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in commissions appear to be agreed by vague WhatsApp messages.
The email that landed Alrubie in court was sent to Granovskaia in May 2022, as he pursued payment for what he claims was his role in the transfer of the France defender Kurt Zouma from Chelsea to West Ham in 2021 – a deal for which he says he was owed hundreds of thousands in fees.
Alrubie wrote to Granovskaia: “In summary, you owe me and my partners 300k which needs to get paid ASAP. If Chelsea don’t pay it then that debt will be on you to pay. I am done trying to be nice to you.
“I’m sure you’ve heard the story about your other friend Kia when he owed me money for a year and how he ended up paying it. Wouldn’t want you to be in the same situation just because you have a personal issue with me.’’
The message is alleged to refer to a supposed incident in 2013 when Joorabchian claims to have been confronted by about 12 debt collectors at his office – and separately relieved of his expensive watch at a restaurant – as part of an effort to put pressure on him into repaying money allegedly owed to Alrubie.
Alrubie told the jury he had nothing to do with the 2013 incident, but when interviewed by police in September 2022 he said: “[Joorabchian] owed [me] about £50,000 for a year … He was spotted having dinner with the Brazilian football team and one of my old associates, no longer, went up to him and Kia then … because he knew he owed the money he said: ‘OK I’m gonna pay, I’m gonna pay, I’m gonna pay.’ But obviously Kia’s been dodging and avoiding paying for a while, so he ended up handing over his watch voluntarily.”
Alrubie told the jury there were two episodes, saying he was speaking about an incident in about 2009 or 2010 during his police interview.