It was a simple trick. Just rewrite the past. That is how Roman Abramovich allegedly kept his superyachts, private jets, and luxury estates hidden from public view. And according to a new investigation, one of the world’s most prominent accounting firms helped him pull it off.
Leaked documents show that Deloitte’s office in Cyprus helped falsify financial records to obscure the former Chelsea FC owner’s vast wealth. The scheme made assets worth $672 million (£508 million) vanish from the books of a Cypriot company owned by Abramovich. By backdating paperwork, advisers managed to help him evade a massive tax bill.
Andrew Mitchell KC, a leading expert in financial services law, reviewed the evidence. His assessment was blunt. He called the scheme “straightforward” tax evasion. “It couldn’t be more blatant,” Mitchell said.
The Disappearing $672 Million
Abramovich’s legal team strongly denies the allegations. They insist the billionaire did not evade taxes or hide his wealth. They also point out there is no evidence he knew about, approved, or directed the alteration of any documents. According to his lawyers, relying on professional advice from qualified experts is entirely legitimate. Meanwhile, Deloitte Cyprus issued a brief statement saying it “acts in compliance with applicable laws.”
The revelations come from “Cyprus Confidential,” a massive cross-border investigation. Led by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and BBC Panorama, reporters combed through thousands of leaked files spanning from 1995 to 2022. The documents expose the inner workings of a corporate network run from Cyprus, a Mediterranean island long favored by wealthy Russians.
For years, Abramovich’s fortunes were managed by a Limassol-based firm called MeritServus. Deloitte actually owned MeritServus until 2005. Even after they split, the two firms continued to work hand-in-glove to manage the oligarch’s money. Much of that money originally flowed from the controversial sale of a state-owned Russian oil company in the 1990s, a deal Abramovich has always defended as entirely clean.
Rewriting History for a Superyacht
The paper trail shows how the cover-up worked. In 2006, Cyprus passed a new transparency law. Suddenly, local companies had to make their financial accounts public. This threatened to expose Abramovich’s closely guarded assets to the world.
At the time, Deloitte Cyprus was finalizing the 2003 accounts for Amiscan Investments, a Cypriot company owned by Abramovich. The draft records held a stunning list of assets. There was a mansion in West Sussex, a luxury apartment in London, an estate in the south of France, private planes, and the Pelorus—a superyacht worth $147.5 million.
To keep these assets secret, advisers decided to change the timeline. They drew up plans to transfer Amiscan’s assets to a parent company in the British Virgin Islands, where secrecy laws remained watertight. Crucially, they backdated the transfer documents by three years. By making it look like the transfer happened in 2003 rather than 2006, they bypassed the new Cypriot transparency laws entirely.
A Fallen Empire
For nearly twenty years, Abramovich was the face of Russian money in London. He bought Chelsea FC in 2003, funding a golden era of trophies. But everything changed in 2022. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK government sanctioned him, citing his close ties to Vladimir Putin. Abramovich was forced to sell the football club.
Today, the oligarch is believed to be living in Turkey, which has not enforced Western sanctions. Yet his financial troubles are far from over. In the Channel Island of Jersey, authorities have frozen £5.4 billion of his assets. A criminal investigation there has been active for four years. Abramovich’s lawyers have dismissed the Jersey probe as politically motivated, but the walls around the oligarch’s offshore empire continue to close in.