Cyprus police open investigation into Abramovich finances after Deloitte document-falsification findings

Cyprus police have opened an investigation into the financial affairs of Roman Abramovich, following a joint BBC and Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) report alleging that accountancy firm Deloitte helped falsify documents to conceal his wealth and evade tax.

A Cypriot Ministry of Justice official told MPs this week that the report's findings would be examined by the police's Financial Intelligence Unit. Police representative Andreas Anastasiades confirmed the unit had already begun gathering evidence and said the investigation was expected to last several months.

The BBC and TBIJ investigation detailed how accounts signed off by Deloitte in Cyprus in 2006 caused assets including superyachts, mansions and private jets worth $672m (£508m) to vanish from Abramovich's company accounts. Deloitte — the world's largest accountancy firm — also appears to have advised on a scheme to evade a large tax bill through document falsification, according to the report.

Anastasiades told MPs that investigators would look at "any company or person who may be involved" and would determine "if there has been fraud or if some documents have been manipulated."

Lawyers for Abramovich said he denies evading tax or concealing his fortune, and that the BBC's Panorama programme provided no evidence he knew about, authorised or directed any falsification. Deloitte Cyprus said it acts "in compliance with applicable laws" but added that the documents are more than 20 years old and no longer accessible, preventing further comment.

The investigation was announced at a parliamentary committee meeting in Nicosia convened to discuss money-laundering prevention. The evidence stems from leaked files covering Abramovich's finances and a network of offshore companies administered from Cyprus between 1995 and 2022, which the BBC and media partners including TBIJ, the Guardian, Paper Trail Media, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and the Cyprus Investigative Reporting Network have been reporting on since 2023 as part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' Cyprus Confidential investigation.