Deloitte helped falsify documents to hide Roman Abramovich’s wealth and evade tax, according to a report by BBC Panorama.
The BBC report that accounts signed off by Deloitte in Cyprus allowed former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to hide superyachts, mansions, and private jets from his company accounts.
The BBC add that Deloitte appear to have advised on a scheme to evade a huge tax bill on Abramovich’s wealth by falsifying documents.
The former Chelsea owner’s lawyers say he denies evading tax or concealing his fortune, claiming he didn’t know or authorise the falsification of any documents.
The BBC claim Abramovich’s associates and MeritServus (owned by Deloitte until 2005) drew up a plan to circumvent the transparency law by transferring his company’s assets to a parent company in the British Virgin Islands.
They backdated the change by three years to make it look like the transfer happened earlier, and Deloitte Cyprus reviewed and approved the backdated documents. But leaked documents reportedly show they knew it was completely misleading.
Backdated documents were then also used in a tax evasion scheme, according to Panorama, falsely claiming another one of Abramovich’s companies were only holding and investing funds on behalf of their parent company in the BVI, meaning it wasn’t liable for tax in Cyprus.
Deloitte then wrote in an email that certain changes would have to be made to the accounts because of the backdated changes to Abramovich’s company’s assets.
As a reminder, Chelsea were recently fined and given a suspended transfer ban for rule breaches relating to payments to agents between 2009 and 2022, when Abramovich owned the club.
Chelsea’s new owners self-reported 74 breaches of the FA rules, which is the only reason the punishment wasn’t more serious. But no one disputes that Abramovich’s Chelsea were guilty of serious misconduct.
It’s therefore not particularly surprising to see the same owner accused of misconduct outside of football as well.
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