From BBC News · · 3m
Deloitte helped Abramovich hide billions in falsified accounts
BBC Panorama finds the accountancy giant reviewed backdated documents that made $672m in assets vanish from the oligarch's company accounts.
In brief
BBC Panorama finds the accountancy giant reviewed backdated documents that made $672m in assets vanish from the oligarch's company accounts. BBC Panorama found Deloitte reviewed and approved falsified documents that hid Roman Abramovich's wealth worth hundreds of millions of dollars and helped him evade tax in Cyprus…
Deloitte signed off hidden wealth
BBC Panorama found Deloitte Cyprus approved accounts that made assets worth six hundred seventy two million dollars vanish from Roman Abramovich's company accounts.
What disappeared from the accounts
The hidden assets included a mansion in West Sussex, a luxury flat in London, an estate in the south of France, helicopters, private jets and a fleet of boats including the one hundred forty seven…
The transparency law that triggered it
In two thousand six, a new Cyprus law required company accounts to be made public.Abramovich's associates and MeritServus, the corporate services firm administering his offshore companies, decided to rewrite history to keep his wealth secret.
How they hid the assets
They backdated documents by three years to make it look like assets had been transferred from Abramovich's Cypriot company Amiscan Investments to its parent company in the British Virgin Islands in two thousand three, not…
Deloitte reviewed the backdated documents
Deloitte Cyprus reviewed the backdated documents and said they were adequate to allow the assets to be removed from Amiscan's accounts.When signed off in two thousand six, only seventy five thousand dollars of assets remained.
A second tax evasion scheme
Panorama found evidence of backdated documents used in a tax evasion scheme involving Kravin Investments, another Cypriot company owned by Abramovich that had almost two billion dollars in the bank in two thousand three.
The plan to avoid tax on interest
Kravin was earning large amounts in interest and should have paid tax to Cyprus authorities.
“If you agree, it will be necessary to change the financial statements and the accounting records accordingly for 2003 and 2004.”
The Russian associate agreed
MeritServus told Abramovich's Russian associates that Kravin's Provisional Tax Assessments for two thousand five would show the company earning no income. A month later, an associate in Russia emailed in response, I agree.
“I agree”
Deloitte advised on the falsification
MeritServus created backdated documents falsely showing Kravin was only holding funds on behalf of its parent company in the British Virgin Islands.
A barrister's assessment
Barrister Andrew Mitchell KC, an expert in financial services law, said the scheme was straightforward tax evasion and it could not be more blatant.
“it couldn't be more blatant”
Ten billion dollars made to disappear
A third set of falsified records involved Electus Investments in Cyprus, holding more than ten billion dollars of Abramovich's fortune.
Abramovich denies wrongdoing
Roman Abramovich's lawyers said he denies evading tax or concealing his fortune. They said Panorama provided no evidence he knew about, authorised or directed the falsification and that relying on professional advice was entirely proper…
Deloitte says documents are inaccessible
Deloitte Cyprus said it could not comment on specific allegations because the documents were more than twenty years old and no longer accessible. The firm said it acts in compliance with applicable laws.
MeritServus closed after the leak
MeritServus, the corporate services firm that administered Abramovich's offshore companies from Cyprus between nineteen ninety five and two thousand twenty two, closed following the Cyprus Confidential leak.
Here's the gist
BBC Panorama found Deloitte reviewed and approved falsified documents that hid Roman Abramovich's wealth worth hundreds of millions of dollars and helped him evade tax in Cyprus.
