Deloitte helped Abramovich hide $10bn by faking documents

Key Points:

• Deloitte’s Cyprus branch and its spin-off Meritservus fabricated and backdated over 1,000 corporate documents for Roman Abramovich over more than a decade, enabling him to conceal at least $10 billion in assets and evade substantial taxes.
• The falsified paperwork created a false paper trail for over 100 companies, with Deloitte signing off on many accounts as “true and fair” despite relying on documents it helped fabricate, facilitating tax evasion and asset concealment.
• Key figures involved included Deloitte Cyprus leaders and Abramovich’s close associates, who coordinated complex schemes such as backdating agreements to hide billions in profits and orchestrate sham transactions to extract tens of millions of dollars.
• The investigation, based on leaked documents and expert analysis, highlights systemic abuse by a top accounting firm assisting a high-profile oligarch in evading tax and hiding wealth, raising broader concerns about the role of white-collar firms in enabling financial crimes.
• Abramovich and his associates deny knowledge or involvement in unlawful activities, attributing reliance on professional advice, while Deloitte Cyprus declined to comment on specifics, stating compliance with applicable laws.