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Cypriot police have begun gathering evidence into the management of Roman Abramovich’s assets through companies on the island, with the inquiry expected to last about six months, according to a Guardian report. Andreas Anastasiades, assistant director of the crime combating department, disclosed the development during a parliamentary committee hearing on institutions and values, noting that the passage of time since the early 2000s did not remove the legal basis for the review. The move follows a joint investigation by the Guardian, Bureau of Investigative Journalism and BBC that examined leaked records showing apparent falsification of paperwork to help Abramovich-owned businesses avoid tax and disguise ownership. A justice ministry representative told the committee that the published information would be assessed for any signs of offences.
The media reports, drawn from the Cyprus Confidential leak of more than 500,000 documents shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, alleged that aides including staff at Deloitte Cyprus and MeritServus backdated key records related to billions in assets. One case centred on Amiscan Investments, whose draft 2003 accounts listed around 578 million euros in luxury holdings such as superyachts, private jets, a French chateau and UK properties that later vanished from its public books after retroactive transfer documents to a British Virgin Islands entity were prepared and approved. A separate arrangement involving Kravin Investments allegedly rewrote nearly 2 billion dollars in bank deposits from the 2003 sale of Sibneft shares to reduce Cypriot tax on interest earnings.
These manoeuvres formed part of a broader pattern between 1999 and 2013 in which more than 1,000 documents across over 100 companies were reportedly backdated, sometimes by several years, to shift a fortune exceeding 10 billion dollars out of Cypriot accounts and limit disclosure, an ICIJ-partner investigation found. Demetris Ioannides, who led Deloitte Cyprus until 2005 before founding MeritServus as the main administrator for Abramovich’s structures, and associate Eugene Tenenbaum were identified as central to the arrangements in the leaked emails and corporate filings. The Cyprus Confidential project, which also involved the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, highlighted how such practices exploited Cyprus as a hub popular with Russian oligarchs prior to tighter regulations.
Deloitte Cyprus stated that it acts in compliance with all applicable laws and explained it could no longer access materials from two decades ago. Abramovich’s lawyers have denied any wrongdoing on his part, emphasising that he relied on independent tax and legal advice from professionals and that the reporting provided no evidence he authorised or knew of document falsification. The billionaire, who holds Russian, Israeli and Portuguese citizenship, has faced similar scrutiny in other jurisdictions including an ongoing Jersey probe into suspected money laundering tied to Sibneft proceeds.
Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK and European Union in March 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leading to the forced sale of Chelsea Football Club for 4.25 billion pounds with proceeds held in a frozen account designated for Ukrainian victims. More than 5 billion pounds of his assets remain frozen in Jersey, where authorities continue their criminal investigation now in its fifth year. The parliamentary session also touched on whether current supervisory bodies could prevent similar issues, with officials from the tax department, central bank and anti-money laundering unit questioned on their oversight roles.
Police confirmed the review would proceed jointly with other competent authorities, including potential input from the tax commissioner who highlighted statutory time limits on reviewing old tax years. The committee chairman stressed the discussion served a supervisory purpose to examine institutional responses rather than revisit historical events alone. No charges have been filed at this stage, and the full scope of the police evidence collection remains under wraps pending completion of the six-month timeline.
