Internal correspondence from Deloitte, dated September 2005, indicated that specific adjustments were required across the accounts—including bank balances, interest income, and the profit and loss statement—following retroactive alterations to the assets held by Kravin.
These actions imply that Deloitte was guiding the manipulation of financial records, enabling Abramovich’s company to avoid paying millions in taxes.
Andrew Mitchell KC characterized the arrangement as “straightforward” tax evasion. “If it happened in England and it was in the millions, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs would be thinking about a prosecution,” he observed.
Christos Christofides, a Cypriot MP, stated that if tax evasion had occurred, the priority must be recovering the funds and ensuring that those found guilty face legal consequences under Cypriot law.
Beyond the records backdated with Deloitte’s involvement, Abramovich’s advisors at MeritServus reportedly altered a third set of documents concerning the oligarch’s substantial business fortune, exceeding $10bn, held through Electus Investments in Cyprus.
MeritServus backdated paperwork to create the impression that Electus did not hold ownership of the fortune.
The scheme utilized a second Abramovich entity sharing the identical name, Electus Investments, but registered in the more opaque British Virgin Islands, where financial accounts were not subject to public disclosure.
Correspondence revealed that in 2006, MeritServus admitted the fortune belonged to Electus Cyprus. However, the firm again proposed rewriting history, this time to “transfer the beneficial ownership to Electus Investments in the BVI” while making it appear the transition had occurred three years prior.
MeritServus signed and backdated agreements falsely claiming the BVI entity had owned the $10bn fortune since 20 November 2003. Consequently, when the accounts for the similarly named Cypriot company were disclosed, they appeared to show assets valued at only $145,000.
In effect, Roman Abramovich’s billions were made to vanish.