Financeupdated 1h ago2 min read
Cyprus Police Investigate Roman Abramovich After BBC Panorama Claims Deloitte Falsified Documents
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Cyprus police opened an investigation into Abramovich's financial affairs after BBC Panorama allegations. BBC Panorama alleged Deloitte helped falsify documents to hide wealth and evade taxes.
Save coverage image
Explore source coverage 5 source types
Directory totals describe our source library, not outlets checked for this story.
7 outlets told this the same way.
Cyprus opens Abramovich probe
Cyprus police opened an investigation into the financial affairs of Roman Abramovich after BBC Panorama revelations said accountancy firm Deloitte helped falsify documents to hide his wealth and evade tax. A Cypriot Ministry of Justice official told MPs that the report’s findings would be looked at as part of a new investigation by the police’s Financial Intelligence Unit, and the police would try to determine whether any criminal acts had been committed.
Andreas Anastasiades confirmed to MPs that the Financial Crime Unit had already begun to gather evidence and said the investigation was expected to last several months. The BBC and TBIJ reported that accounts signed off by Deloitte in Cyprus in 2006 meant assets such as superyachts, mansions and private jets worth $672m (£508m) vanished from Abramovich’s company accounts.
What police will examine
Andreas Anastasiades told MPs that police would look at any company or person who may be involved, and he said investigators would see if there had been fraud or if some documents had been manipulated. The Guardian said police were looking into events between 2003 and 2006, with the investigation likely to last several months, after a report by the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC into Abramovich’s business empire.
The TBIJ said a representative of the Cypriot police’s Financial Intelligence Unit told MPs that they were gathering evidence for analysis, and it would probably be several months before any findings were made public. Abramovich’s lawyers told the BBC that he denies evading tax or concealing his fortune, and Deloitte Cyprus said it acts in compliance with applicable laws.
Scope, timelines, and fallout
The investigation drew on leaked files described as thousands of documents about Abramovich’s finances and a network of offshore companies administered from Cyprus between 1995 and 2022, and the Guardian said its findings were based on the Cyprus Confidential leak of more than 500,000 documents. The TBIJ said its reporting uncovered how backdated paperwork from 1999 to 2013 was used to rewrite corporate history, helping the oligarch conceal at least $10bn in assets and dodge large amounts of tax.
The Cyprus Public Audit Oversight Board announced it was gathering evidence specifically into Deloitte Cyprus, and its director general Panos Prodromitis told Cyprus Mail that the authority was taking actions within its legal responsibilities to serve the public interest. Philenews reported that Andreas Anastasiades said police “began gathering information on their own initiative so it could be assessed,” and he said no decision had been taken on whether to open a formal investigation at that stage.