A BBC Panorama and Bureau of Investigative Journalism investigation claims that Deloitte, one of the world's largest accounting firms, helped Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich hide his wealth and evade tax through forged documents and backdated transactions. According to the leaked documents, accounts prepared and signed by Deloitte in Cyprus in 2006 caused luxury assets worth $672 million, including superyachts, villas, private jets and helicopters, to disappear from the balance sheets of one of Abramovich's companies. After changes to the documentation, the company was found to have only $75 in assets.
The investigation also reveals that the oligarch's advisers allegedly used falsely dated documents to avoid taxes on bank interest income. Another of his companies, Kravin Investments, had nearly $2 billion in the bank in 2003. Internal correspondence suggests that, after consultations with Deloitte, changes were proposed to the financial statements and accounting records to present the funds as being held in the name of a parent company in the British Virgin Islands.
The published documents also include another case, where business assets worth over $10 billion were allegedly registered in the name of another company, with the aim of the assets not appearing in the company's public accounts in Cyprus.
Financial law expert Andrew Mitchell KC described the scheme described in the documents as outright tax evasion. Accounting professor Lord Sikka also criticised the changing of transaction dates and the failure to present accurate accounts.
Abramovich and Deloitte deny wrongdoing. The oligarch's lawyers said he was not involved in the day-to-day running of the companies and there was no evidence he knew, authorised or directed the forgery of documents. They added that reliance on professional advice was legitimate. Deloitte Cyprus said it was acting in accordance with applicable laws, but said it could not comment on specific allegations because the documents were more than 20 years old and no longer available.
Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea football club, was sanctioned by the UK after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and forced to sell the club. Meanwhile, around £5.4bn of his assets are reportedly frozen in Jersey as part of a four-year criminal investigation. His lawyers have denied the allegations in the investigation.
The investigation is based on thousands of financial documents related to a network of companies administered from Cyprus during the period 1995–2022. The firm MeritServus, which managed some of these companies and was once owned by Deloitte, was closed after the publication of the leaked documents.
