BBC: One of the worldʼs largest audit firms “Deloitte” helped hide the wealth of Russian oligarch Abramovich

One of the worldʼs largest auditing firms “Deloitte” helped falsify documents to hide the wealth of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and help him avoid paying taxes.

This is stated in a BBC investigation.

“Deloitte” in Cyprus has audited financial statements that have revealed $672 million in Abramovichʼs assets, including superyachts, luxury estates and private jets. “Deloitte” is also believed to have helped devise a scheme to help the oligarch avoid paying huge amounts of tax by forging documents.

Financial services law expert Andrew Mitchell believes that the evidence gathered by journalists points to tax evasion.

Abramovich himself denies that he evaded taxes or hid his wealth, his lawyers said. According to them, the journalists have not provided any evidence that the oligarch knew about the forgery of documents or gave relevant instructions. “Deloitte Cyprus” responded that the company “acts in accordance with applicable law”.

In particular, the first case of retroactive filing discovered by journalists dates back to 2006. At that time, Cyprus passed a law that required companies to publish financial statements. “Deloitte Cyprus” prepared draft reports for 2003 for the Cypriot company “Amiscan Investments”, associated with Abramovich. The documents listed assets worth $672 million.

The list included a mansion in West Sussex, luxury apartments in London, a mansion in the south of France, as well as helicopters, private jets and several yachts. Among them was the $147.5 million yacht “Pelorus”.

According to the investigation, “Deloitte Cyprus” allegedly advised Abramovichʼs company on a tax evasion scheme.

To hide the assets and prevent them from being made public, the oligarch’s entourage and “MeritServus” decided to transfer them to their parent company “Amiscan Investments”, in the British Virgin Islands. The transfer date was backdated by three years to make it appear in the documents as if the deal had taken place in 2003.

“Deloitte Cyprus” reviewed the documents drawn up retrospectively and found them to be “adequate” grounds for removing assets from “Amiscan” accounts. In 2006, “Deloitte” signed off on the company’s 2003 financial statements, from which Abramovich’s houses, planes and yachts had disappeared. Only $75 000 in assets remained in the accounts.

In addition to the documents that “Deloitte” helped to prepare retrospectively, Abramovich’s advisors from “MeritServus” forged another set of documents. It related to the oligarch’s business assets worth more than $10 billion, which were owned by his Cypriot company “Electus Investments”.

“MeritServus” filed the documents retroactively to make it appear that “Electus” did not own these assets. They did this using another Abramovich company with the same name — “Electus Investments” — but registered in the British Virgin Islands, where financial statements are not required to be made public.

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