Leaked files tie Deloitte Cyprus to backdated Abramovich asset moves

The record

Advisers working for companies linked to Roman Abramovich backdated or rubber-stamped more than 1,000 documents between 1999 and 2013, according to an investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) published on 12 October 2026 with BBC Panorama, The Guardian and OCCRP. The paperwork, the outlets report, made billions of dollars in assets appear to have left Cypriot companies for British Virgin Islands entities years before they actually did.

The records come from Cyprus Confidential, a leak of 3.6 million documents from six Cypriot service providers obtained by Paper Trail Media and Distributed Denial of Secrets and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. At the centre are Deloitte Cyprus and MeritServus, a corporate-services firm spun out of Deloitte in 2005 and led by Demetris Ioannides, who had chaired Deloitte Cyprus for close to two decades.

New disclosure rules, rewritten histories

According to OCCRP, Cyprus adopted a law in 2003, ahead of joining the EU, requiring foreign-owned private companies to publish detailed financial statements. The leaked files show the advisers responding by redrawing the ownership history of several companies held through the Sara Trust, of which Abramovich was the beneficiary and Ioannides the trustee.

Kravin Investments received about $3bn in 2003 from the sale of a 20% stake in the oil company Sibneft to Yukos; roughly $2bn stayed in its accounts earning interest. In August 2005 a Deloitte partner reported $10m of interest for the first half of that year. OCCRP reports that letters were then drafted and dated May 2003 to show Kravin holding the money for Kelvedon Worldwide, a BVI company. Kravin’s 2005 accounts, filed in 2016, declared $15,000 in tax for 2004 and 2005 combined.

Yachts, jets and a $145,000 holding company

Draft 2003 statements for Amiscan Investments, prepared in July 2005, listed yachts worth $354m, aircraft worth $142m and four properties in France and the UK worth $127m. A sale agreement transferring 19 subsidiaries to Kelvedon was dated 4 January 2003 but, according to OCCRP, drafted in November 2006. The audited 2003 accounts later showed those assets at zero.

A similar switch was applied to Electus Investments, the trust’s Cypriot holding company. Its role was transferred on paper to an identically named BVI firm set up in late 2003. When Electus’s 2003 accounts were filed some 14 years later, TBIJ and ICIJ report, a fortune of about $10bn had shrunk to a single shareholding valued at around $145,000.

Sanctions and earlier court records

The United Kingdom froze Abramovich’s assets on 10 March 2022, and the EU followed days later. In April 2023 the UK sanctioned Ioannides, saying he crafted “murky offshore structures” that Abramovich used to hide over £760m. The origins of the Sibneft fortune were examined in the 2012 English High Court case Berezovsky v Abramovich. TBIJ reports that authorities in Jersey have been investigating suspected money laundering since 2022.

The responses

Abramovich’s lawyers told the reporters there was “no evidence” he “participated in, authorised or knew of” the paperwork, that he did not evade tax, and that it was “entirely proper” for his companies to rely on Deloitte’s advice. They said he denies the Jersey allegations. Deloitte Cyprus said it “acts in compliance with applicable laws” and could not access correspondence from 20 years ago. Lawyers for Eugene Tenenbaum, who ran Abramovich’s London management company, denied any improper backdating. Ioannides’s lawyers said he was unable to respond.

Questions that remain unanswered

Who decided that the dates should be changed, and did any Deloitte reviewer outside Cyprus see the drafts? Did Cypriot tax and company authorities rely on the replacement accounts, and will they reopen them? And did the practice continue after 2013?

The findings rest on leaked records that the reporting outlets say they analysed and put to those named. No court has ruled on the backdating, and none of the individuals or firms has been charged in connection with it.

Based on reporting from: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism · 12 October 2026; OCCRP · 12 October 2026; ICIJ · Cyprus Confidential · October 2026; The Guardian and BBC Panorama · October 2026; UK Government · Abramovich sanctions · 10 March 2022; UK Government · Sanctions on Demetris Ioannides · 12 April 2023; High Court of England and Wales · Berezovsky v Abramovich [2012] EWHC 2463 (Comm).