Police in Cyprus have opened an investigation into the financial and tax affairs of the former Chelsea FC owner, Roman Abramovich, following a report by the Guardian and media partners. In a committee hearing in the Cypriot parliament, a senior official in the island’s police said they were looking into events between 2003 and 2006, with the probe likely to last several months. It comes in the wake of an investigation by the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC into the management of the billionaire Russian oligarch’s sprawling business empire.
The report found that aides of Abramovich – including staff at the Cypriot outpost of the global accountancy firm Deloitte – appeared to have falsified paperwork mapping his offshore businesses. Their actions, including the apparent backdating of key documents concerning billions of pounds in assets, appear to have helped businesses owned by Abramovich to dodge tax and disguise assets, the investigation found. The involvement of the Cypriot police emerged during a regular meeting of a Cypriot parliamentary committee on “institutions, values and the commissioner for administration”, according to CIReN, the Guardian’s Cypriot reporting partner.
Andreas Anastasiades, assistant director of the crime combating department, said police had begun gathering evidence following the report and expected the investigation to last six months, although he said the amount of time that had elapsed would make the investigation more difficult. He said police would also consult the relevant authorities to assess the available material. The Guardian approached representatives of Abramovich and Deloitte Cyprus for comment.
The former Chelsea FC owner has previously denied any wrongdoing and said that he relied on the advice of professional experts. Deloitte Cyprus has previously said that it “acts in compliance with all applicable laws” and that it could no longer access the relevant material because of the time that had elapsed. The Guardian’s findings in relation to Abramovich’s finances were based on the Cyprus Confidential leak of more than 500,000 documents, first released to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and analysed by organisations including the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC.
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