Deloitte Helped Hide $672 Million of Abramovich Assets, BBC Finds Tax-Evasion Scheme
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Oct 12
Deloitte Helped Hide $672 Million of Abramovich Assets, BBC Finds Tax-Evasion Scheme
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Oct 12
Summary
$672 million in yachts, jets and property vanished from Roman Abramovich’s Cypriot company accounts after Deloitte Cyprus approved backdated documents, according to a BBC Panorama investigation.
Leaked files show advisers rewrote 2003 records in 2006 to shift assets to a British Virgin Islands parent, letting public accounts for Amiscan shrink to just $75,000.
A separate scheme involving Kravin Investments, which held nearly $2 billion in 2003, allegedly used falsified records to erase interest income and avoid millions in Cypriot tax.
The documents also show MeritServus backdated ownership records so more than $10 billion appeared to sit with a BVI company, leaving the Cyprus-based Electus reporting only $145,000 in assets.
Abramovich denies evading tax or directing any falsification, while Deloitte Cyprus says it complied with applicable laws; the findings add to scrutiny of the sanctioned oligarch, whose £5.4 billion of Jersey assets remain frozen.
How did top-tier accountants allegedly make billions in oligarch assets vanish without triggering a single global regulatory alarm?
If basic offshore registry searches hide true owners, how many more sanctioned billionaires are secretly shielding their fortunes today?
Can authorities ever seize frozen offshore empires when the very paperwork proving ownership was allegedly forged years in advance?
Deloitte and the $672 Million Offshore Scandal: How Big Four Accountants Enabled Abramovich’s Tax Evasion and the Global Crackdown on Cyprus Secrecy
Overview
The Cyprus Confidential leaks revealed how Deloitte Cyprus and MeritServus helped Roman Abramovich hide hundreds of millions through offshore schemes. Deloitte advised classifying Abramovich’s superyachts as commercial leases using backdated documents, letting Blue Ocean Yacht Management avoid millions in VAT. When Cypriot authorities investigated, they found no real business activity and demanded €14 million in unpaid taxes. Deloitte and MeritServus also erased $2 billion in tax liabilities for Abramovich’s Kravin Investments by falsifying records. Meanwhile, UK and Jersey authorities froze billions in Abramovich’s assets and launched criminal probes, while Cyprus began closing thousands of shell company accounts to curb offshore abuse.