Papers Suggest Deloitte Helped Falsify Abramovich Tax Records
Leaked documents indicate that backdated paperwork moved Roman Abramovich’s assets beyond the reach of Cypriot tax, and that his accountants reviewed and signed off records the leak suggests they knew to be misleading. In one 2006 case, $672m of property, aircraft and boats left a company’s books, leaving $75,000 behind. Mr Abramovich denies evading tax or concealing his fortune.
The material comes from Cyprus Confidential, a leak of more than half a million documents on offshore companies run from Cyprus between 1995 and 2022, first released to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. MeritServus of Limassol, the firm at the centre, was owned by Deloitte until 2005. The sharpest document is an August 2005 email saying a plan was devised “after a meeting with Deloitte” and that “it will be necessary to change the financial statements and the accounting records accordingly for 2003 and 2004”; an associate replied “I agree”. A separate 2006 transfer was backdated three years and judged “adequate”. Deloitte Cyprus has not denied the conduct. It says it “acts in compliance with applicable laws” and that it cannot address the specific allegations because the documents are more than twenty years old and no longer accessible to it. Mr Abramovich’s lawyers say no evidence shows he knew of, authorised or directed any falsification, that he was not involved in day-to-day operations, and that relying on professional advice was “entirely proper and legitimate”. No total for tax evaded has been established. Separately, £5.4bn of his assets remain frozen in Jersey.