Leaked financial records show that accounting firm Deloitte in Cyprus signed off on backdated documents that erased $672 million in luxury assets from Roman Abramovich’s company accounts and helped reduce his tax liabilities.
The leaked files from Limassol-based corporate services provider MeritServus reveal that backdating schemes were used to bypass Cyprus transparency regulations and evade taxes on corporate bank interest between 2003 and 2006. MeritServus was owned by Deloitte until 2005, after which the two firms continued working together on the Russian oligarch’s offshore network.
In one instance, a 2006 transparency law in Cyprus required company accounts to be made public, threatening to expose assets held by Abramovich's firm Amiscan Investments. Deloitte Cyprus had drafted 2003 accounts listing a mansion in West Sussex, a London flat, an estate in southern France, aircraft, and boats including the $147.5 million yacht Pelorus. To hide the holdings, advisers backdated paperwork by three years to transfer the assets to a British Virgin Islands entity, leaving only $75,000 on Amiscan's books when Deloitte approved the accounts.
A second scheme targeted Kravin Investments, another Cypriot company tied to Abramovich, which held nearly $2 billion in bank deposits in 2003. To avoid Cypriot tax on substantial interest earnings, advisers created backdated records stating the funds were held on behalf of a parent company in the British Virgin Islands, with Deloitte noting in correspondence that accounts would need adjusting to reflect the altered ownership.
Lawyers for Abramovich denied that he evaded tax or concealed assets, stating there was no evidence he directed, authorised, or knew about document falsification, and that he legitimately relied on professional advice. Deloitte Cyprus said it "acts in compliance with applicable laws".
Abramovich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and forced to sell Chelsea Football Club, which he had acquired in 2003. In Jersey, where £5.4 billion of his assets remain frozen under an ongoing criminal investigation, his lawyers stated the inquiry was "undertaken for political purposes".
