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BBC finds Deloitte helped falsify documents to hide Abramovich’s wealth

newsOct 12, 202617246

BBC Panorama reports that Deloitte Cyprus signed off accounts that backdated and falsified paperwork to hide Roman Abramovich's assets worth £508 million ($672 million), removing yachts, mansions and private jets from company records to evade tax. Panorama says the evidence comes from a leak of thousands of documents about a network of offshore companies administered from Cyprus between 1995 and 2022, work first reported as part of the ICIJ's Cyprus Confidential project and by partner outlets including the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Barrister Andrew Mitchell KC told Panorama the materials show a "straightforward" tax evasion scheme and that "it couldn't be more blatant." Abramovich's lawyers deny he evaded tax or authorised any falsification and say the investigation produced no evidence he knew about or directed the documents, adding it was legitimate to rely on professional advice. Deloitte Cyprus said it "acts in compliance with applicable laws." The files show Deloitte once owned the Cyprus corporate services firm MeritServus until 2005 and thereafter worked closely with Abramovich's associates to manage his offshore structure. Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK in 2022 and forced to sell Chelsea; £5.4 billion of his assets remain frozen in Jersey where a criminal investigation has been under way for four years.

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